Quest Academy was named the Division A Champions at the 2024 Illinois Junior Academy of Science’s Region 6 Science Fair, which was held on Saturday, March 2, at Stevenson High School. Quest Academy sent a team of 20 seventh and eighth graders to represent the school, and 17 out of 20 students took home gold medals; nine of those students will advance to the State Science Exposition, which will be held in May at Milikin University. 
Congratulations to these students who received Special Awards from the judges:
Alex R: Received the the Jonas Salk Award for his work with antibiotics in conjunction with rainforest alkaloids and their ability to control several different types of bacteria.
Arnav C.: Recognized by the Optical Society for his efforts in computer science for his computer program that looks at photographs of deep space and identifies subtle anomalies in the data, specifically black holes.
Paige T: Honored with the Marie Curie Chemistry Award and the EPIC (Best in Category) Award for her research into the effects of varying levels of caffeine on the circulatory function of simple aquatic organisms. Paige’s study sheds light on the growing issue of caffeine in our water supply, and she worked with scientists at Harper College and local water specialist Dr. Frank Hauser on methods to test for the presence of caffeine in water, extract the caffeine from each sample, and quickly and efficiently purify water of the molecule.
Learn more about the Illinois Junior Academy of Science.
