Twenty SAR HS students who participated in the Biology Challenge Option, met to discuss the scientists whose biographies/autobiographies they had read, analyzed and written about this past summer.

The students had chosen to read “In Search of Memory,” the autobiography of Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, in which he describes his groundbreaking work in neuroscience; “Praise of Imperfection,” the autobiography of Rita Levi Montalcini, in which she describes how she made her discoveries in neurobiology and development, initially while in hiding from the Nazis, to winning a Nobel Prize (the fourth woman to do so); “The Discovery of Insulin” by Michael Bliss; “Marie Curie” by her daughter Eve Curie; “Louis Pasteur” by Renee Dubois; “The Camel’s Nose,” the autobiography of physiologist Knut Schmidt-Nielsen; and “Africa in My Blood” about the life of Jane Goodall.

The Biology Challenge Option is a program in which students can go beyond their ninth grade coursework and note how historical events and culture affect scientific discovery. The goal of this biography project is to allow students a first hand view into the life of the scientist and see how the scientific mind operates. The students shared their scientist’s accomplishments, personal characteristics and other factors that allowed each of them to succeed.

The participating students are: Galia Atik, Yonah Fenster, Maya Jamil, Mikayla Jason, Lindsey Kalish, Tobi Katz, Maya Lebowitz, Eden Migdal, Laetitia Ohayon, Adin Pepper-Fox, Liora Picker, Zev Pinker, Emma Rebarber, Simone Schnall, Amanda Silberstein, Merav Spira, Amalia Stulbach, Avi Turok, Rachel Vidomlanski, Lyla Waitman.

Yasher koach to each of them for their work and for the really inspiring papers they wrote!