On April 14- 15, the 10 sophomores whose projects were ranked in the Top 10 will present their topics in the Matthews Library to compete for prizes. They are Emma Belliveau, Zoe Bowlus, Emma Brown, Dakota Cosgrove, Serajh Esmail, Aidan Galati, Elinor Hilton, Sydney Michel, Keaton Ochoa and Anthony Swaminathan. (Interviews with Bowlus, Brown, and Michel are included below, along with others.)
Name: Zoë Bowlus
Q: What topic are you doing for your sophomore project?
A: I am writing about how climate change affects the Maine lobster industry.
Q: How did you pick your topic?
A: My family goes to Maine every summer. (English teacher Jane) Bauman suggested to my mom that a project like this would be a good idea.
Q: Whom did you interview for your project?
A: I interviewed the general manager for O’Hara Bait, and I went out lobstering with a neighbor. I also interviewed a lobsterman from Maine. We got up really early in the morning and drove to his shop; we also picked up some traps there. We went out at around 5 a.m. and came home late afternoon. We were on the water the whole day. My dad and I watched him as he and his stern man baited the bags and hauled the traps. It was really interesting to see the whole process.
Q: What has been the hardest part of the project?
A: Compiling all the information I have and putting it together to make a coherent paper.
Name: Jacob Sands
Q: What topic are you doing?
A: Aquaculture.
Q: How did you pick your topic?
A: I started out doing it about fishing, but I found a sub-topic which really spiked my interest.
Q: Whom did you interview?
A: Well, I went to the Nimbus Hatchery for a interview with the manager Gary Novak. After the meeting he gave me a tour of the tanks where they kept the fish. They had recently filled the tanks, so the fish weren’t fully grown.
Q: What has been the hardest part?
A: The hardest part of the sophomore project is the deadlines because we find out a week in advance.
Name: Sydney Michel
Q: What topic are you doing?
A: How music in movies affects the movie and the viewers’ emotions.
Q: How did you pick your topic?
A: I have always been interested in it because I love movie scores.
Q: Whom did you interview?
A: A professor at the University of Southern California.
Q: What has been the hardest part?
A: Probably breaking (my paper) into categories because there are so many different types of movie scores and techniques.
Name: Jag Lally
Q: What topic are you doing?
A: I am doing my project on sleep deprivation. I am trying to convince people that lack of sleep is bad for a person.
Q: How did you pick your topic?
A: I saw myself and my classmates all being sleep-deprived. Also I had seen recent news about accidents relating to sleep deprivation. After doing a short bit of research, I had a breakthrough. My research showed that some of the worst disasters of the 20th century were all caused by sleep deprivation.
Q: Whom did you interview?
A: I interviewed sleep-deprivation specialist Dr. Bains, who runs a clinic in Yuba City. (Dr. Bains) said, “Even after one night of less than four hours of sleep, studies have shown significantly decreased response time.” I was shocked when he said that becuase I have had numerous nights when I slept less than four hours in an attempt to prepare for a final exam, and I didn’t know that I was doing more harm than good.
Q: What has been the hardest part?
A: It has to be writing the paper in a way to make the reader stay interested throughout.
Name: Emma Brown
Q: What topic are you doing?
A: The broad topic is subliminal advertising, but my narrowed topic is different levels of advertising that can be considered subliminal. For example product placement, behavior placement, guerrilla marketing, and secondary messages embedded in logos.
Q: How did you pick your topic?
A: Librarian Johann Melinson gave us a sheet with hundreds of suggested topics to pick from. I went through and read all of them and narrowed it down to subliminal advertising.
Q: Whom did you interview?
A: I interviewed Chris Holben, the president and public relations director at the advertising agency Runyon Saltzman, & Einhorn. I also interviewed Greg Ries and Vikki McDonald, who are art directors at Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn. Mr. Holben told me a lot about types of subliminal advertising that are used today. Mr. Ries and Ms. McDonald said a lot about how their company produces ads and how they interest people in their ads. They also gave me their opinion on subliminal advertising and their opinion on the validity of that advertising technique.
Q: What has been the hardest part?
A: To apply the different types of paragraphs that we learned about in English class to our information.
