SCIENCE FAIR - FALL SEMESTER - 2011 - BONAIRE

1^st December 2011 saw the latest episode in the developing story of research at SJSM Bonaire. For the entire fall semester the MD4 students, along with MD3 collaborators in some cases, had been conceiving, developing and prosecuting their research projects. All the projects had been approved by the research committee, and the time had now come for the students to formally present their results to their peers and the faculty. There was a wide range of projects carried out, as can be seen from the list below, and this was a reflection of the ingenuity of the students in most cases. As the time approached for the presentations, I have never seen the students looking so smart or so nervous. But once we got going, everyone settled into the program, the presentations flowed and everyone stuck pretty much to their time limits. We had eight of the faculty acting as judges, so there was little possibility of bias, and we ended up with clear 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places. The winners were Danita Pirtle, Ben Schwerer and Mohammed Haidous; second were Jacob Landry, Josef Sipos, Keerthana Kumar, Ben Heiser and Codi Stewart; and third were Hanan Arshad, Sahar Shamsipour, Lijean Yeh, Richa Chhibba and Julien Phinney. All of them will be awarded certificates, which will be presented at their White Coat ceremony.

1. Jacob Landry, Josef Sipos, Keerthana Kumar, Ben Heiser and Codi Stewart. Naturalistic observational study of bicycle helmet use.
2. Ayesha Maqsood, Corina Nediu, Suganiya Srikanthan and Taniya Khan. Co-morbibity of social anxiety disorder with depression and/or alcohol abuse/dependence.
3. Ben Heiser, Codi Stewart, David Jaeger and Syed Jaffery. Determine times and locations to effectively locate and remove invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish from Bonaire's reef.
4. Miriam Asabea-Antwi, Ndianabasi Mbride, Shafrin Nitu, Ijeoma Onwuzurike and Robert Burries. Medical student's reaction to cadaveric dissection at SJSM.
5. Asma Hussain, Adeel Yousphi and Lavanyaa Chandrasekaram. Body dismorphic disorder (BDD): gender and ethnic differences and prevalence in the SJSM medical student population.
6. Hanan Arshad, Sahar Shamsipour, Lijean Yeh, Richa Chhibba and Julien Phinney. To examine the change in BMI during the initial adaptation to Bonaire.
7. Danita Pirtle, Ben Schwerer and Mohammed Haidous. To examine the effectiveness of dietary fish supplementation on glucose (HbA1c) and triglyceride levels of diabetic clients in Bonaire, NA.
8. Abhas Mathur, Ahsan Ullah and Chris Ciccarelli. The effect of visual aid education for hygiene education in school age children on Bonaire - a pilot study.