Nolan is a member of the Boy Scouts and B.E.S.T. Robotics. He also enjoys archery.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: Math and Science

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I am on the Archery Team, Science Olympiad Team and B.E.S.T. Robotics team at my school. I am a Boy Scout and I love camping. I also play the trumpet. I enjoy building things and playing on the computer and riding my bike. I like to have fun.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: When I was 5, we had a career day at my school. I have always wanted to work for NASA. The Mars Rovers influenced me. I want to make rovers for other planets.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: I inherited a video camera and a friend and I started making movies with our Lego guys. I wanted to try a movie of my own.

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: I like to discover things. I like to know how things work.

Albert likes competing in science fairs and is in both the science and math clubs. He is also a member of a symphonic orchestra.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: Science

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I read science magazines, play golf and play viola. They are challenging, educational and give me an opportunity to express myself.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I want to become a biomedical engineer because it fuses two of my most favorite fields of science.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: The Mythbusters inspired me to invent and question the world.

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: Science explains everything in a logical reasonable matter. It is the field where new discoveries and useful applications can be made.

Braeden not only enjoys participating in science fairs, but is also a member of the Boy Scouts. He plays the saxophone, sings in a choir, plays lacrosse and football, and is involved in student council as the president of the student body.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: My favorite subject is science.

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: Over the years, I have participated in many extra-curricular activities. I play the saxophone, act in the school drama productions, and sing in the school choir. I have a very outgoing personality, and these activities fit my personality. I am a Life Scout in Boy Scouts, just one rank below Eagle Scout. I like to backpack, perform service, and teach younger scouts. Also, I have played football, lacrosse, hockey, soccer, basketball, and baseball. I like sports because they challenge me and I like being active. In March 2011, I participated in the Los Angeles Archdiocese Junior Academic Decathlon. As Captain, I helped our team win 4th in Logic, 7th in Super Quiz, and 4th overall out of 104 schools. I also placed first in the individual science test, receiving a perfect score.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I probably like to pursue a career in science or engineering. These careers would allow me to use my scientific knowledge and make an impact on the world.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: My science teacher informed me about it last year. Filming and editing are two more things I enjoy doing. I was not able to participate in it last year, so I was extra excited to participate in it this year. After all, who wouldn't want to win 25,000?

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: I like to think critically and analyze data from experiments. It's fun to learn how things in our world work and why they work.

This young scientist has a passion for science and math. Divya participates in science fairs and is a member of the math club, Math Counts, Future Business Leaders of America, and the economics team.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: My favorite school subject is science. More specifically, life science.

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I enjoy participating in science competitions such as Science Fair, Young Scientist Challenge, etc., Economic Team, Math Counts, Future Business Leaders of America, and Technology Student Association. My hobbies include playing piano, swimming, performing martial arts, listening to music, reading books, and watching movies.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I would like to be a neurosurgeon. I am intrigued by the human brain and its functions. The abilities of a human brain are amazing. I would also like to actively participate in community service activities that involve building awareness and help protect our environment.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: I love to participate in science competitions. The theme for this year's Young Scientist Challenge interested me and encouraged me to participate.

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: I love the fact that science provides answers to so many questions. For everything that goes on around us, there is a scientific reason. I love studying about organisms, human body, environment etc. I love performing hands-on experiments.

Austin enjoys being a part of the math club and competing in science fairs. He stays active by doing karate.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: Math

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: Think of ideas to build new things & programming. I like to be challenged.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I want to invent things. Because it would help advance society and make everyday lives easier.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: My mom saw it on Facebook and thought I would be interested.

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: It helps me know how everything works and how I can build bigger and better things.

John enjoys competing in science fairs and is a member of the academic team at his school.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: Social Studies

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I love to play soccer, it is a challenging sport. I participate with the Academic Team, Odyssey of The Mind, Future Problem Solvers and play the Alto sax in the band.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: Possibly architecture, I'm interested in how things are built especially using new materials that are environmentally friendly.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: My science teacher Mr. Brandon Cornaby

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: I enjoy the hands on learning experiments. Science is a big area, lots of cool stuff to learn.

Jack likes to further pursue scientific research by participating in science fairs! He is also a member of the science, math, and engineering clubs. He is involved in the Boy Scouts and likes to stay active by going kayaking.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: My favorite school subject is science. I enjoy physics and biology the most because of how they help me understand and think about the world.

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I have whitewater rafted and kayaked my whole life. I enjoy working with the water to move gracefully down rapids. It is very exciting to attempt harder rivers and it also cool to figure out how to take the rapids apart mentally to have a good run.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I would like to be a computational biologist because that would combine my love of math and science to solve interesting problems.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: Just knowing the science isn't enough! You have to be able to communicate your ideas to others so they can learn and apply what you know. I enjoy competing in science fairs and sharing with and learning from my competitors. I figured this challenge is a great way to practice my skills and also share my solution to the problem of low head dam drownings.

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: There is always more to learn. You can always dig deeper into whatever subject fascinates you. The scientific method is awesome because it is a way to test your ideas about what is happening!

Cheyenne enjoys competing in science fairs and participating in the math club. She knows how to play two musical instruments, piano and flute, and is also a member of the fencing team.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: Math

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I like to read because I enjoy the thrill. I like fencing because it's a challenging sport. I like to come up with new ideas because no one has ever thought of them before, and they exert my mind.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I want to be an engineer and a scientist on the side, solving theoretical questions like "Is there a theoretical highest temperature?" I would like to do this because of the challenges and mind-bending problems.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: I was searching for science contests and happened upon this one. I decided to enter because it looked like a challenge.

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: What I like about science is the fact that it is so complex, that we keep having new discoveries, and how little we've uncovered about it so far. I'm also fascinated by the spirit and mindset of the pioneers, like Einstein and Darwin, because they introduced completely novel ideas.

Shayan exhibits his passion for science through participating in science fairs, the science club and the math club. He is also a member of the Boy Scouts. Shayan plays the piano and is on the wrestling team.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: My favorite school subject is science and geography. I also love to read.

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I am an active Boy Scout and love skiing and wresting. I am also an active coin and antique collector, with great interest in the history of coins and antiques. I have been playing the piano since I was 5 years old and just won 2nd place in the Midatlantic 2011 Piano Competition. I speak 3 languages fluently (English, German and Farsi).

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I would like to be a veterinarian, because it involves many different animal biologies and research.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: I recently won first place in my school science fair and also in the PJAS competition. My teacher thought I would be interested in the Young Scientist Challenge and introduced it to me. I am very pleased to join this competition.

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: I like the fact that there are so many things left unsolved and that science has no limits. I love discovering new things.

Caroline is an active participant in the areas of music and athletics! Her activities consist of theater, flute, piano, guitar, choir, track, cross country, and softball.

Question: What is your favorite school subject?

Answer: I like science and writing because I they involve creative thinking and new ideas.

Question: What hobbies or extra-curricular activities do you enjoy and why?

Answer: I enjoy running, playing piano and guitar, theater, and animals. Running is fun because it's about personal improvement, and I enjoy playing music because you can be creative.

Question: What career do you want to pursue and why?

Answer: I want to do something in science and innovation because I like the idea of creating something for the advancement of our world. Also, the satisfaction of learning or creating something is a great thing to have in a job.

Question: What prompted you to enter the Young Scientist Challenge?

Answer: I heard about it through another science program, and it looked like a great challenge and opportunity!

Question: What about science fascinates you?

Answer: I like how science lets you learn more about the world around you, and see things in a new way. It helps you understand things and create new inventions to improve society.