Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society
Cobb County
Crystal Growing Competition
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A competition of experimentation and creativity
Image: Aluminum potassium sulfate crystal grown by STARS leader, Susanna Huang, with UV light-activated glowing highlighter molecules crystalized inside
Awards Ceremony
Passion makes Perfect
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We are the Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society (STARS), and since the start of our group's establishment in 2019, we have been competing at crystal-growing competitions annually. Over the last few years, we have been winning high placements nationally at the US Crystal Growing Competition, even winning 2nd place nationally in 2020. Seeing the learning opportunities that are associated with crystal-growing competitions for students, we were inspired to host crystal-growing competitions of our own for local elementary and middle school students.
Last year, we hosted our annual Cobb County Crystal Growing Competition, and in a collaboration with the Advanced 8th grade Physical Science teacher Mrs. Amodeo, we went to Dodgen Middle School to bring the competition to her students. Over the course of several days, we taught her students how to grow crystals, led hands-on activities for growing the crystals creatively with the students, gave them the opportunity to submit their crystals to the competition, and hosted mega Kahoots with King-sized candy bars as prizes.
From Mrs. Amodeo's six classes as well as several other students from local elementary and high schools, we received impressive crystal submissions. High-scoring students' Crystal Journals were very detailed, and their crystals were very clear and beautiful.
To celebrate our competition winners, we will be hosting the 2022 Cobb County Crystal-Growing Competition Awards Ceremony this Friday, March, 24th at the East Cobb Park.
The students listed here were invited to the awards ceremony and will receive their awards certificate and certificate holder at the awards ceremony.
Also, at the end of the awards ceremony, we will be holding a raffle drawing, where nine lucky students will be chosen to take home a National Geographic Mega Crystal Growing Lab ($40) for vibrant-color crystals and real gemstone specimens.
This awards ceremony is proudly funded by our sponsor the American Crystallographic Association, which boasts more than 40 Nobel Prize Laureates and over 1,300 members from 37 countries worldwide (https://www.amercrystalassn.org/crystal-growing-contests).
It is thus with great joy and pleasure that we hereby announce the winners of the 2022 Cobb County Crystal-Growing Competition:
Medals of Scientific Excellence
Recipients of the Medal of Scientific Excellence will receive an awards certificate, its certificate holder, a crystal pendant, as well as the STEM medal.
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Single-Crystal Category
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Steven Huang, from the K-5th division, for winning the Championship of the 2022 Cobb County Crystal Growing Competition. His two submitted crystals were the largest, most faceted crystals of all the submissions, and his Crystal-Journal was exceptionally well-written.
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Sheling Cai and Jalon Wang for winning the Most Ocean-blue Crystal Award for the 9-12th grade division because their crystal was a deep, serene blue, and the quality of this crystal was very evident.
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Rita Dwivedi for winning the Most Beautiful Gem-like Crystal Award for the 9-12th grade division because her crystal was beautifully cultivated, and the quality of this crystal was very evident.
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Group-Crystal Category
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Lisa Onodera and Sadie Hernandez for winning the Most Detailed Journal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
Max Needle and Una Tesovic for winning the Most Innovative Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Kohki Onodera and Adi Swahney for winning the Most Artistic Crystal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Sophia Tao for winning the Most Sophisticated Journal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Kathrynn Benninger and Arden Barry for winning the Exceptionally Clear Crystal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Vibha Vijay and Aashritha Kudumula for winning the Exceptionally Largest Crystal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Tony Chen and Hyunsoo Jang for winning the Most Colorful Crystal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Brian Clark and Dillan Vuong for winning the Largest and Colorful Crystal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Aleeza Bandukwala and Vidya Bhatnagar for winning the Most Beautiful Crystal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
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Violet Cox and Natalie Ruth for winning the Most Faceted Crystal Award for the 6-8th grade division.
Scientific Achievement Awards
Recipients of the Scientific Achievement Award will receive an awards certificate, its certificate holder, and a crystal pendant.
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Single-Crystal Category
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Nick Schug and Woody for winning the title Largest Snowflake Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Aidan Simons and Matthew Wilson for winning the title Tiniest Snowflake Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Bennett Hill and Evan Kambies for winning the title Cutest Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Group-Crystal Category
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Eliza Saifee and Jake Rheaume for winning the title Shimmering Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Nathan Kim and Zak Globerman for winning the title Shimmering, Large Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Kavin Prakash and Kian Attar for winning the title Shimmering, Large Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Nihal Viswanathan for winning the title Detailed Journal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Ansley Bruder and Seena Cuddapah for winning the title Vibrantly Colored Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Farida Anany and Tate Adams for winning the title Amazing Crystal Sketches for the 6-8th grade division.
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Kellen Gornall and Vihaan Anumula for winning the title Clearest Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Mythili Shah and Niki Sharifi for winning the title Amazing Crystal Sketches for the 6-8th grade division.
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Grace Brinckerhoff and Ella Powell for winning the title Vibrantly Colored Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Nithin Siva and Claire Harper for winning the title Vibrantly Colored Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Lorenzo Montecinos and Leo Vincent for winning the title Vibrantly Colored Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Alena Wolfe and Shalin Pokharel for winning the title Amazing Mappa Mundi Crystal Sketches for the 6-8th grade division.
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Alfredo Guadarrama and Diego Mateo for winning the title Vibrantly Colored Crystals for the 6-8th grade division.
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Aashrith Muppalla and Blaine Davies for winning the title Shimmering Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Layla Varghese and Shanthi Ramprasad for winning the title Most Powdered Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Gison Xu and Westin Chen for winning the title Most Creative Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Harshid Balachandar and Arjun Sanghavi for winning the title Shimmering, Large Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Ava Hortin and Jack Lambert for winning the title Shimmering Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Eli Suddeth and Noah Wiley for winning the title Clearest Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Tatyana Solntseva and Shinjon Rafique for winning the title Shiny Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Grace Zeleke and Ella Meyers for winning the title Shimmering Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Rajat Ravi and Jack Childress for winning the title Coolest Colored Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Natalie Phan and Sasha Gupta for winning the title Exceptionally Vibrant Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
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Dillon Dugan and Jonathon Berman for winning the title Shimmering, Large Crystal for the 6-8th grade division.
Honorable Mentions
Recipients of the Honorable Mentions will receive an awards certificate and its certificate holder.
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Group-Crystal Category
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Arya Kurup and Dhanya Patur in the 6-8th grade division.
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Emily Ginzberg and Tanvi Bhandurge in the 6-8th grade division.
April Zhang and Claire Xu in the 6-8th grade division.
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Debmita Roy and Brantley Grooms in the 6-8th grade division.
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Christopher Neal in the 6-8th grade division.
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Kavin Mukilan in the 6-8th grade division.
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Jeremiah Raj and Matthew Sha in the 6-8th grade division.
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Maddox Lyon and Thomas Ellison in the 6-8th grade division.
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Jose Vazquez and Gus Fleming in the 6-8th grade division.
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Andrew Zhang and Christopher Zhou in the 6-8th grade division.
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Jeremy Shu and John Paul Decker in the 6-8th grade division.
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Deeta Doddi and Anya Dhir in the 6-8th grade division.
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Josh Bengtson and Jaiden Huynh in the 6-8th grade division.
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Hayden Weaver and Wayde Burke in the 6-8th grade division.
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Abhijeet Ghosh and Ritvik Ranjan in the 6-8th grade division.
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Anna Lopez and Sarah Law in the 6-8th grade division.
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Emily Nilles and Elle Ides in the 6-8th grade division.
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Jacob Thottungal and Quentin Brown in the 6-8th grade division.
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Eden Herring and Sahara Shetty in the 6-8th grade division.
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Ansley Gorton and Brooke Leslie in the 6-8th grade division.
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Evan Herrera and Justin Ho in the 6-8th grade division.
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Jake McNeely and Tomoki Sato in the 6-8th grade division.
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James Peterson and Ayan Patel in the 6-8th grade division.
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Isaac Waldron and Mason Wicks in the 6-8th grade division.
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Cole Spankowski and Jackson Williams in the 6-8th grade division.
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Emmet Cronin and Chase Holland in the 6-8th grade division.
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Noah Rogers and Coleman James Fleury in the 6-8th grade division.
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Rohil Vallabhaneni and Miller Guy in the 6-8th grade division.
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Brandon Smith and Daniel Walker in the 6-8th grade division.
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Logan Wicks in the 6-8th grade division.
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Maxim Le-Tu and Thomas Callahan in the 6-8th grade division.
We are so excited for what these outstanding students will do in the future! With the awards ceremony this Friday, we hope that they will be reminded: While performing scientific experiments may be long, grueling, and hard, as long as patience and perseverance are maintained, obstacles can be overcome, and success can be achieved!
2022 Cobb County Crystal-Growing Competition Awards Ceremony is this Friday, March, 24th at 5:30pm at the East Cobb Park (the reception starts at 5:00pm) at the upper pavilion. Food and drinks will be provided. Awards will be given out, and raffle tickets will be drawn.
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If for some reason you may not be able to make it for the awards ceremony at 5:30pm, we will still be here at the East Cobb Park upper pavilion until around 7:30pm for you to come by and pick up your award.
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To accept the invitation, make sure to RSVP with the link, which was sent to invited recipients on March 16th.
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If you see your name on the awards recipient list (which includes the Medals of Scientific Excellence, the Scientific Achievement Awards, and the Honorable Mentions), but did not receive the RSVP invitations that we sent out on March 16th, the awardee may RSVP here: https://forms.gle/wx81CA7u3yNr9f7cA.
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We hope to see you there!
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~STARS Team
March 20th, 2023
2022 Cobb County
Crystal Growing Competition
Sponsored by ACA
The international, most prestigious crystallographic association, boasting more than 40 Nobel Prize Laureates and over 1,300 members from 37 countries worldwide.
In fact our competition is even on their homepage spotlight! https://www.amercrystalassn.org
Prof. Ada Yonath
Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Ada Yonath is our role model; she pioneers the crucial crystallographic techniques and discovers the ribosomal structure through X-ray crystallography.
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Her research efforts and momentous crystallographic discoveries have inspired STARS to host this crystal growing competition and to explore our future research in macromolecular crystallography.
2022 Cobb County Crystal Growing Competition Registration Form
This is the registration form for the 2022 Cobb County Crystal Growing Competition which is open to all students. Any student can register for this competition. Note that as per competition rules (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GhOpLzcSU-Omgu5Hb8Yl352kSZ0GTp8Pdoy7v5T_-qA/edit?usp=sharing), each student or teacher can submit one overall crystal and one coolest crystal.
Crystals are submitted virtually through photo or video format. The higher the quality of the photos and videos, the easier the judges are able to judge your crystals.
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https://forms.gle/NCkntGVrpR7aFjR49
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PEhNEyG43y4FMEV5G7byCS0aPiqc3BMd?usp=sharing
What is a single crystal?
How to Set Up a Crystal Solution
Crystal Growing Tips
What is a lab notebook?
Onwards!
Cobb County Crystal Growing Competition Rules
Full rules:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GhOpLzcSU-Omgu5Hb8Yl352kSZ0GTp8Pdoy7v5T_-qA/edit?usp=sharing
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1. Each K-12 student will submit photos and a video of one crystal of salt (for the Salt Crystal Division) and/or one crystal of any safe crystal growing material for the Creative Crystal Division along with a Crystal Journal for each crystal submission.
2. Any student can register for this competition for free.
3. Submissions will be ranked based on crystal score as well as Crystal Journal score.
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4. Explore science and have fun!
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ratio for how much salt and how much water you need to use for making your solution?
Usually, you can create a saturated solution by slowly mixing salt into the water while keeping track of how much salt and water were used so far. When no more salt can be mixed into the solution (no matter how much further you crush the salt at the bottom of the cup and no matter how much more you stir the solution), that means your solution is saturated. When your solution is saturated, salt crystals will easily crystallize out of solution.
For example, for one of our past salt crystal experiments, we added 10 grams of salt into 30 mL of water, and the solution reached saturation point (but this was when the room temperature was 59 degrees Fahrenheit, so the amount of salt required might be different depending on your current room temperature. Usually more salt is required to attain the saturation point at higher room temperatures).