In early May OHS junior Damon Myers stepped in among some pretty heavy competition.

He earned a spot in the world's largest high school science research competition, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Intel ISEF features more than 1,500 high school students selected from 446 affiliate fairs in approximately 70 countries, regions, and territories to share ideas, showcase cutting-edge research and inventions, and compete for more than $3 million in awards.

Damon's project in his words, "While the hardware has been created to communicate with a device using brain waves through an electroencephalograph, these EEGs are oftentimes expensive and impractical to use every day. This project set out to create a cost-effective EEG along with programming an interface that could calibrate the computer to easily accomplish basic needs. First, I used an EEG chip from a MindFlex headset and routed the packets to an Arduino open source board to transfer them to a USB port on a computer, successfully creating a reader that cost less than 100 dollars. Next, I created two basic programs that would take the readings from the board and save the values into a database that could be referenced for basic tasks like calculations and communication. Last, I allowed the subjects to test the prototype. While there were errors, the participants were able to perform calculations and create phrases using the device. Therefore, I concluded that a device such as this would be a huge success in the real world if implemented correctly and developers were given the necessary tools to create applications to perform a range of tasks, from controlling video games, to giving a quadriplegic the ability to control their wheelchair using their mind."

Wow. While at the fair, Damon and the other young scientists heard from Benjamin Gulak, founder and CEO of BPG motors and three-time Intel ISEF finalist, and Brian David Johnson, futurist at Intel Corporation. Congratulations to Damon for qualifying to complete at the Intel ISEF.

ECISD's AVID program closed another successful year with its annual AVID Celebration on April 30. This powerful event was hosted by Odessa College this year. At the Celebrations two students - Amanda Nardo, an 8^th grader at John B. Hood Junior High, and Jasmine Reyes (a 10^th grader at Permian) read essays about the impact of AVID on their lives. Also, all of the AVID students from the junior highs and high schools were entered into a drawing and one kid from each campus won a laptop computer!  The laptops were donated by Rino-K&K Compression, Ltd.

This year the senior class included a total of 83 AVID students - all 83 applied for college admission; 81 were accepted to college with the two others joining the military; more than $600,000 in scholarships have been awarded to this group; 72 are first generation college students; 51 are planning to attend either O.C. or UTPB.

Visit this link if you'd like to learn more about AVID - click the AVID Celebration links on the left side of the page to see the great videos!

Visit this link if you'd like to see photos from this year's AVID Celebration.

The AVID program is now five years old. It is offered as an elective course at all secondary schools with more than 1,000 students enrolled! Next year AVID will be offered at New Tech Odessa for the first time. At the elementary level, AVID strategies are being used to prepare students for the transition to upper grades.

The lucky winners of the secondary AVID laptop giveaway!

Don't forget about summer registration for all ECISD students. It is important to register your child during this time; not only does it make the first week of school easier on students it is very important in helping the school district prepare for the beginning of school.

Summer registration starts for pre-kindergarten kids on July 18 & 19; the rest of the district will hold registration from July 31-August 3. You can find all of your registration information at this link on the ECISD website.

http://www.ectorcountyisd.org/ecisd/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=387278