Prize Winners

Here are the winners of the prizes which San Diego Mensa has awarded each year, at the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair, "for projects which explored issues related to human intelligence and learning in the most interesting way":

• 1999
  • Max Krasnow: "Effects of Patterns in Answers of Multiple Choice Tests."
  • Carolyn Sawyer: "Do Pictures Help Children Learn to Read?"
• 2000
  • Jennifer M. Baietto: "Organization and Memorization: How Can They Help You?"
  • Anh Q. Pham: "Teaching Methodology and Mathematic Attainment"
  • Ashley N. Richardson: "Effect of Color on Reading and Retention"
  • Adam H. Schechter: "The Best Way to Learn: Reading, Hearing, or Seeing?"
  • Alexis F. Steele: "Making the Grade"
  • Andrew P. Thompson: "Short Term Memory in School Age Children"
• 2001
  • Photo of the judges
  • Kevin Bailey: "Memory Retention"
  • Daniel Floyd: "Gender-Based Differences in Style and Acceptance of Humor"
  • Naveen Krishnan: "Temporal Results on Perceptual Grouping"
  • Lauren Olsen: "Do Extracurricular Activities Correlate with a Student's GPA?"
  • Shane Robinson: "Do You See What I See? Gender Differences in Memory Formation and Retention"
  • Kevin Zeidler: "Effects of Psychological Stereotypes
    upon Standardized Testing"
• 2002
  • Summer Hall: "Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome"
  • Naveen Krishnan: "The Influence of Pre-Attentive Processing
    of Illusory Contours on Crowding"
  • Parker Lee: "How Does Caffeine Affect Your Performance
    on Tasks Requiring Concentration?"
  • Julia Mizrahi: "Auditory and Visual Short-Term Memory:
    Evaluation of Learning Strengths"
  • Elizabeth Tauscher: "Does the Strength of Parent-Child Relationships Affect Grades?"
  • Lilia Villa: "Are Aesthetic Preferences in Visual Art Biological?"
• 2003
  • Article from the MENSAN: San Diego Mensa has supported the Greater San Diego Science Fair for several years, by providing special awards to certain projects. This is our fifth year of participation in this project, and our prize is for "the most interesting projects on human intelligence and learning." This year, judges Joan Johnson, Barbara Lytle and Tom Streeter selected the winners, which were prescreened by Adina Sobo.
    
    The top senior winner was Hilltop High School (Chula Vista) Junior Christopher Bonser, for a second-year project: "Statistical Analysis of Computer Based Learning vs. Traditional Learning II." The judges elected to award only a single senior prize this year.
    
    We also had three junior level winners, all of whom were in eighth grade. They were first-place winner Alexandra Schraub for a project titled "Memory: Reality or Fantasy," second prize winner Trang Dinh for "Semantic Encoding vs. Acoustic Encoding" and Jonathan Goodman with "One Brain -- Two Hemispheres." Alexandra and Jonathan both attend Soille San Diego Hebrew Day and Trang goes to the Preuss Model School at UCSD.
    
    All four of our winners also won First Place awards from the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair itself. In addition, Christopher Bonser, Jonathan Goodman and Alexandra Schraub each also won a special award from the San Diego Psychological Association. Alexandra also won a prize from the San Diego Association for Rational Inquiry.
• 2004
  • No prizes.
• 2005
  • Jenna Nelson
  • Carolina Palmer
  • Shannon McCarthy
  • Annapoorna Subramanian
  • Raquel Sojourner
  • Kristie Borjesson
  • Sarah Silverstein
  • Caroline Stevens
• 2006
  • John Carin
  • Erika Carino
  • Hoa Truong
  • Giovanni Montenegro
  • Dorit Stein
  • Benjamin Weissman
• 2007
  • Daniel Wills 
  • Kenneth Tan
  • Sarah Silverstein
  • Molly Suggs
  • Ashleigh Langbein
  • Peter Schlaht