La Canada Prep Sends Three to the National Science and Engineering Fair

La Canada Preparatory gleaned one third-place finisher and two honorable-mentions at the state fair, meaning all three students qualify for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge to be held in Washington, D.C., this October.  The Junior Innovators Challenge is the nation’s premier STEM research competition for middle school students.

Leonna Torosyan received third place in the Environmental Management category for “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” a project that examined the advantages of composting using black soldier fly larvae.  Raphael Kaplan and Yash Jaju received honorable mentions in the Animal Biology category for “How Do Raptors Survive in LA?” and “Planaria Regeneration and the Future of Medicine” respectively.  All three students won first-place prizes in their categories at the Los Angeles County Science Fair in March with Leonna Torosyan taking home the overall grand prize for the fair.

“To qualify for a national science and engineering fair is a major accomplishment for these young students,” LCP head science teacher, Stephen Miller, said.  “It is also a big deal for the LCP science department.  We’ve never had students advance this far before, and we’re really excited!”