"Young Scientist Award" Presented by UT Graduate School

Jessica Pecero is only entering the sixth grade this fall, but she's already won a university award. Jessica has been chosen as this year's winner of the "Benny Garcia Young Scientist Award," presented by The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston. The award commemorates Jessica's initiative, imagination and interest in science while attending Brookline Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District prior to her graduation in May. She received a projection microscope and her name was added to a plaque in the school library.

The UT-Houston Graduate School established the award in honor of Benny Garcia, who was in the fifth grade when he was killed in a car accident in 1999. While working at the Graduate School eight years ago, Benny's mother Gloria was instrumental, along with Assistant Dean of Outreach and Minority Affairs Dr. Thomas Goka, in developing an outreach program at Brookline. It was aimed at bringing the world of science to children like Gloria's son Benny, who was extremely interested in science.

Today, volunteer graduate students and faculty members bring science experiments and science classroom support to more than 550 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Brookline. When Benny died, the Graduate School and Brookline wanted to recognize Gloria's efforts, and thus established the annual award to honor a fifth-grade Brookline student who has a similar love of creativity and science.

This year, the Brookline students studied states of matter and the changes in the properties of matter as different forms are mixed. They made a hydrometer that measured the density of a solution, and designed accompanying experiments. Students submitted their experimental results in a "laboratory report," along with ideas for further experiments to their teachers, who made recommendations to the Graduate School volunteers who determined the winner.

- Shannon Rasp

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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