Pupils gear up for Science Day at YSU

A full-tuition scholarship to YSU is being offered for this year’s top project.

YOUNGSTOWN — More than 500 pupils in grades five through 12 will compete in the annual Lake-to-River Science Day on March 8 at Youngstown State University.

There’s an added incentive to create a particularly spectacular project for this year’s event — the high school junior or senior with the best project will be given a four-year, full-tuition scholarship, courtesy of the university’s new College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

It’s the first time that a scholarship of that magnitude has been presented on Science Day.

The event will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Beeghly Center. Public viewing is from noon to 3 p.m.

Ryan Strollo, a seventh-grader at St. Joseph School in Austintown, went to the event as a sixth-grader and did well, winning a $25 cash prize for his entry on which fertilizers are best for plants.

“It was good. It’s going to help me next year,” said Strollo, son of Ron and Nicole Strollo of Austintown.

Strollo said St. Joseph pupils can participate only in the sixth and eighth grades, and he plans to go back in 2009 as an eighth-grader.

“It was a great thing for [pupils] to experience,” said Nicole Strollo.

Lake-to-River Science Day is one of 16 regional science fairs in Ohio sanctioned by the Ohio Academy of Science. The Lake-to-River region encompasses Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties.

The event is sponsored by YSU and regional businesses and civic organizations.

Contestants in grades seven through 12 whose projects are judged as “superior” may be eligible for the State Science Day competition May 10 at Ohio State University.

In addition to the four-year scholarship, participants this year will be competing for a $500 scholarship from WCI Steel, $50 in gift certificates from Kent State and more than $2,000 in cash prizes donated by regional organizations.

Project entries are still being accepted through Wednesday. For details, go to http://stem.ysu.edu/laketoriver/index.html.