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November 14, 2003/Cheshvan 19 5764, Vol. 56, No. 8
Science star
Pardes student receives award
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Ray Quackenbush, left, presents Ben Damari with the Howard Kumlin Memorial Award and a $25 check for his project on side dominance, which also won first place in the Life Science category at the Arizona State Fair.
Photo courtesy of Pardes Jewish Day School
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On Nov. 2, Ben Damari walked into the Temple Kol Ami sanctuary, just as he does every Monday morning. This day was different, however, with Ben's parents, classmates and teachers present to see him awarded with the Howard Kumlin Memorial Award - the overall grand prize award - for Damari's entry to the Arizona State Fair.
The 11-year-old student at Pardes Jewish Day School Middle School knew that he had won first prize in the Life Science category at the Arizona State Fair for his project "Side Dominance and How It Affects Your Choices," but he says he was "completely surprised" at the newest honor.
"When I went into the sanctuary they had ... someone standing there from the State Fair and he explained that I was the first to win the award and that it was a memorial award," says Damari. "I was really, really excited."
The sixth-grader created the science project last year, when he was in fifth grade with teacher Alex Gramise.
"Ben's a really good student," says Gramise. "He's always been top of the class and on the ball. He's a really great kid."
According to Gramise, all fifth-graders create a science project, which are then entered in the Kiva Elementary School Science Fair. Damari was the Life Science winner at that contest, which allowed his project to go on to compete at the state level.
Damari's project explored the affects of side dominance - right-handed people being left-brained, versus left-handed people being right-brained.
"If you use the right side of your body more, you use the left side of your brain more. The left side is the math side, the science side. If you're more left-side dominant, you use the right side of your brain more. The right side of your brain is the artsy side," explains Damari.
To do his research on the affects of side dominance, Damari's soccer team helped him distribute surveys while he was at a soccer tournament in California.
And while he's pleased with his scientific success, Damari's true love is soccer.
"I'm a major soccer fan," he says. "I have about five or six practices a week."
He plays on his school team, as well as the Sereno Soccer Club, and he also plays the saxophone.
Damari lives in Scottsdale with his parents, Barbara Lewis and Aviv Damari, and sister, Nicole, 13. The family belongs to Temple Solel.
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