M-DCPS STUDENT FINALIST IN NATIONAL SCIENCE COMPETITION

MIAMI – David Ying, a senior at Coral Reef Senior High School, is one of 40 finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search Competition, the country’s oldest and most highly regarded pre-college science competition that is often dubbed the “junior Nobel Prize.” His project is titled Meristerm-Tip Culture Boosts Yield of an Important Sweet Potato Cultivar, ‘Picadita’.

Riding his bike around his neighborhood one day, David rode past an abandoned field and noticed that there were some sweet potatoes sticking out of the ground. Curious as to why the field would be abandoned, he dug a few sweet potatoes out of the ground and saw that they were smaller than normal. He took them to Dr. Thomas Davenport, a professor at the University of Florida. In his lab, they ran some tests and realized that viruses, which stunted their growth and made them commercially unviable, infected the sweet potatoes.

Wanting to remove the viruses and other pathogens from the sweet potato, David worked with the cultivar ‘Picadita,’ an important variety of the sweet potato, and used a technique called Meristem-Tip Culture to conduct his experiment. Working under Dr. Davenport’s supervision from September 2003 to June 2004, David used the plant’s shoot tip, which is a rapidly dividing and naturally virus-free plant tissue that harbors stem cells. This tissue was removed from the tips and placed in a medium for culture. Plantlets derived from the culture were grown and then planted in the field for production. For the first season, total yield increased 146.7 percent, compared to non-cultured control plants. For the second season, total yield increased 116.2 percent. This procedure significantly boosted yields by presumably removing pathogens from ‘Picadita.’

As a finalist, David will take an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. the week of March 10-15 to attend the Science Talent Institute, where he will have the opportunity to interact with top scientists. Finalists will also attend rigorous final judging sessions and compete for college scholarships.

Three other Miami-Dade County Public Schools students had made it to the contest’s semifinals: Reshma Ramachandran of Coral Reef Senior High, Shannon Knee of Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High, and Xiaoyun Nong of Miami Palmetto Senior High. They and their schools each received matching awards of $1,000.

The grand prize is a $100,000 four-year scholarship. The second-place finalist will receive a $75,000 scholarship, and the third-prize winner will get a $50,000 scholarship. Fourth-through sixth-place finalists each receive a $25,000 scholarship; seventh-through tenth-prize winners each receive a $20,000 scholarship. In addition to the scholarship awards, each of the finalists will receive an Intel® CentrinoT mobile technology-based notebook computer.

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