Gales Ferry Student Wins Award at the Discovery Channel Science Fair
By Tara Fehr
COLLEGE PARK, MD., Oct. 19 – Elijah Mena, 14, from Gales Ferry, stood in the middle of his team Wednesday, directing his fellow participants in the Discovery Channel’s Young Scientist Challenge. When talking about science Mena sounds like a college professor; talking about anything else, he is a typical teenager.
Members of the teams participating in the interactive event at the University of Maryland were among the 40 finalists chosen from around the country to present their research at the competition for middle school students. The top winners were announced Wednesday night, when Mena won the “Discovery Channel Ice Age Award,” acknowledging his skills as a problem solver.
Mena has always showed interest in problem solving. “I’ve always been interested in science, in doing hands on experiments,” Mena said. When he was younger, for example, he enjoyed puzzles.
Mena also was a finalist in last year’s competition. Through his tropical fish collection he developed the idea of researching the survival instincts of baby guppies.
Last year Mena came to Washington with his father, and this year he made the trip with his mother, who is a psychotherapist. He also has a brother Josh who is 17.
To qualify for the competitions, Mena first had to submit his project to a local science fair for middle school students. Directors from around the country go to these fairs and nominate students to join the competition. This year 6,000 students applied. Mena had to present his project and display his ability to communicate and relay his ideas through essays.
This year Mena focused on energy.
“There’s been a lot of talk on energy,” Mena said. “Ethanol has no innate increase on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Corn can produce ethanol, but it’s expensive. Mena discovered that fungi also could produce this renewable fuel at cheaper costs. This idea was inspired by his father’s explanation about mushroom enzymes, but Mena did most of the work on his own.
“He keeps himself going pretty well,” said his father Edward Mena, president of LifePharms Inc., a biotechnology company. “He’s always doing things I wouldn’t expect a 14-year-old boy to do.”
At an early age, Mena had a knack for math and problem solving, his father said. His son’s interest in science developed from there; it started about four years ago.
Since then, Mena has read and researched science in his own time, which his father and his eighth grade science teacher said keeps Mena challenged.
“He knows how to get the job done,” said Emile Levasseur, Mena’s eighth grade science teacher at Ledyard Middle School. “I wished he had asked me for help a little more. I almost felt useless.”
Mena’s hard work has paid off so far. In addition to the Discovery Channel competitions, he was one of two students at his school who received $500 from the Connecticut Science Teachers Association, he came in first in the state science fair and his middle school math team came in first at the competition sponsored by the Connecticut Society of Professional Engineers.
But science is only one part of this teenager’s life.
“He really gets involved in things he does,” his father said. “He has a lot of broad interests.”
These interests include jazz music, piano, Boy Scouts, running and tennis, which he hopes to play in high school this year at Ledyard High School. He is currently ranked 50 th in New England for tennis players his age, but Mena doesn’t like to talk about his accomplishments.
“I’ve had very few students of his caliber, not just academic, but maturity,” Levasseur said. “He has the complete package.”
