Students use public health data to improve their communities

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) announced the winners of the third annual Washington Tracking Network (WTN) Youth Science Contest in late May. The contest is an opportunity for high school students to develop their science and communication skills by engaging with health and environmental data from their own communities. Seven Lake Washington School District students from Tesla STEM High School and Eastlake High School finished in the top three for their projects.

“Students really care about issues that affect the health of their friends, families and communities,” said Jennifer Sabel, WTN Manager with DOH. “It is great to see their passion for identifying, analyzing and trying to improve these public health issues, and that we’re able to guide them in that work.”

Students could submit projects in three tracks: Health Science, Science Communication, and Program and Policy Design. Winning projects ranged from research papers to poems and were selected based on content, health and equity impact, and presentation. Projects were judged by experts on the relevant topic within DOH.

All winning projects can be viewed on the WTN contest webpage.

Below is a list of the students who placed in the top three along with the title and links to their projects:

• Health Science - Individual Division
  • First Place - Correlation Between Breast Cancer Cases and Socioeconomic Status in Washington State, by Anisha Upasani, Tesla STEM High School Slideshow (PDF)
• Science Communication – Group Division
  • Second Place - Mental Health in the Youth of Washington, by Inesh Dey and Iris Dey, Tesla STEM High School Webpage
• Program and Policy Design - Group Division
  • First Place - Addressing Socioeconomic Disparities: Strategies for Promoting Access to Healthy Foods and Improving Health Equity in Washington State, by Keerthi Rajesh and Naman Mutalik Desai, Tesla STEM High School Paper (PDF)
  • Third Place - Nutrition Wellness Initiative, by Jeeya Alag and Kaylee Ro, Eastlake High School Paper (PDF)