Wheeling High School freshman Zalman Faltushanskiy competed at the Illinois State Science

     Wheeling High School freshman Zalman Faltushanskiy competed at the Illinois State Science Fair on May 4, winning best in category for Behavioral Sciences. The event was sponsored by the Illinois Junior Academy of Science, and held in Assembly Hall at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. A series of qualifying regional competitions took place in February and March. 

     His project, "The Effect of Listening to Music on Mathematics Test Performance," was supported by WHS librarian Barry Hanrahan, intervention specialist Ken Indeck, social science teacher Patricia Baima, math teacher Francis Fu, assessment supervisor Paula Kruty, and technology assistant Lauren Elliot, as well as all the students in the school's Investigatory Design Program. 

     "Zalman’s study was very clever in the way he was able to utilize the existing resources at our school to conduct the study," said Indeck. "In particular, it was his idea to use the technology we have in our language laboratories to provide specific sound samples to the students participating in his investigation."

     Faltushanskiy's work began back in the summer of 2012, when he participated in the Summer Investigatory Design Program. He refined his research design during first semester of the 2012-2013 school year, and performed the actual data collection during second semester.

     At region six, Faltushanskiy's project was rated gold level and earned him a berth at state, which is a more rigorous competition.  At the state level, Faltushanskiy received not only a gold, but also Best High School project in Behavioral Sciences throughout Illinois.  In all, there were 120 Behavior Sciences projects at the junior and senior high school levels.  Students with projects from 12 regions competed in the following categories: Aerospace Science, Astronomy, Behavioral Science, Biochemistry, Botany, Cellular & Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Consumer Science, Earth Science, Electronics, Engineering, Environmental Science, Health Science, Materials Science, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics, and Zoology.

     "This achievement is the research equivalent of winning 'State' in your weight class for wrestling," commented Hanrahan.  "Zalman recognizes this and will gladly try to 'out research’ all challengers in head-to-head competition."