Great Neck South Middle School students competed at the South Asian American Women’s Alliance Middle School Science Fair.

Great Neck South Middle School students competed at the South Asian American Women’s Alliance Middle School Science Fair.

Great Neck Public Schools

South Middle School seventh grader Serena Fu earned first place at this year’s South Asian American Women’s Alliance Middle School Science Fair for her outstanding project titled, “The Effect of Temperature on Magnet Strength.”

Serena’s experiment explored how temperature impacts the strength of magnets—a topic with broad applications in science, engineering, and safety.

Her project involved testing magnets at three different temperatures: room temperature, a heated condition, and a cooled condition. She measured magnet strength by the total weight of paper clips each magnet could attract.

Seventh grader Serena Fu earned first place at this year’s South Asian American Women’s Alliance Middle School Science Fair,Seventh grader Serena Fu earned first place at this year’s South Asian American Women’s Alliance Middle School Science Fair,

“Magnets are used in many parts of everyday life,” said Serena in her project summary. “By learning how to improve their strength through temperature control, we can make their applications more efficient and even help ensure safety in areas where magnets are critical.”

South Middle science chair Tobias Hatten congratulated Serena and her mentor, Diane Caplain, on her scientific curiosity, thoughtful experimentation, and well-deserved recognition.

“Her achievement reflects the school’s commitment to encouraging student-led inquiry and excellence in STEM education,” Hatten said.

In addition to Serena, 12 other seventh-grade students participated in the SAAWA science fair with a wide range of impressive research projects: Hadley Nam, “The Effect of the Type of Surface on the Growth of Blue Oyster Mushrooms”; Eliana Goldberg, “The Effect of the Ripeness of a Fruit on Its Glucose Content”; Elizabeth Joseph, Camila Wong and Sarah Sen, “How Filthy Is Your Toothbrush?”; Fiona Hsiao, Joanna Wang and Micol Carrillo, “Beyond the Physical: The Power of Mental Preparation”; Jane Choi and Elise Kim, “Gerbera Daisies: An Exploration of Rain vs. Tap Water for Optimal Growth”; Amber Chau and Dia Agrawal, “Die or Thrive”.

The seventh-grade science fair students were guided under the mentorship of their grade 7 teams and science teachers, Diane Caplain, Kristi Willis and Nathan Wong. All grade 7 science students at SMS participated in Science Fair through the FLEX program.