Two FCPS students take home grand prize awards at state science fair

Two Fairfax County public school students won grand prize awards at the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair.

FCPS students took first place in nine of the 17 categories in the fair, held March 27-28 at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.

Ava Lakmazaheri of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology won the second grand prize in the fair and first prize for her project in the electrical and mechanical engineering category. Fellow TJ student Matthew Park won a grand prize runner-up award and first prize in the microbiology category for his project.

Both Lakmazaheri and Park qualified to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, scheduled for May 10-15 in Pittsburgh.

FCPS students from TJ, Madison, Marshall and West Potomac also took home first-place awards in seven other categories: behavioral and social science; computer science; earth and planetary science; energy and transportation; environmental management; physics and astronomy; and plant science.

The Unified Prevention Coalition will host two community forums on the dangers of alcohol abuse.

The forums will be held Tuesday, April 14, at 7 p.m. at Madison High School, and Wednesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College. Parents are encouraged to attend with their adolescent children.

The UPC is a nonprofit that partners with school and government officials and community groups to combat substance abuse. The events, under the headline The Perils of College Drinking Culture, will feature a screening and panel discussion of a documentary on binge drinking on college campuses.

Featured speakers and panelists will include Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Casey Lingan, Fairfax County Police Sgt. Dan Pang, and Inova Fairfax Hospital emergency physician Dr. William Hauda, among others.

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School notes: FCPS students take home prizes at state science fair