Geneva's Allessandra West's Music-Learning Project Is Finalist in National Science Fair

Allessandra West, 13, of Geneva has the distinction of being a semifinalist in the Broadcom MASTERS National Science Fair Competition.

Broadcom Foundation and the Society for Science announced the 300 students from the United States and Puerto Rico selected to compete for a trip to Washington, D.C., and a $25,000 scholarship.

Only eight students from Illinois made the semifinals.

West competed in the science fair at in Geneva, when she was in eighth grade. She received 100 percent on her project and hers was one of eight projects that moved on to the regional competition. The Illinois Junior Academy of Science Region V Science and Engineering Fair took place March 17, 2012, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. There, West placed Best in Category—Behavioral Science, received an "outstanding state finalist" award, the highest honors blue ribbon, and the Broadcom MASTERS nomination.

Allessandra went on to the state finals at University of Illinois in Champaign on May 5, 2012, and won silver. 

Out of more than 6,000 students, only the top 10 percent were given the opportunity to participate in the Broadcom MASTERS competition. Allessandra, along with more than 1,460 students from 290 middle schools in 38 states representing 117 science fairs, were invited to compete further. There were questions pertaining to their project that had to be completed online. Entries were judged by scientists and engineers.

Her parents received notice on Aug. 15 that she was one of the national semifinalists. 

As a semifinalist, her science teacher at St. Peter's, Marie Culliton, is receiving a set of Sally Ride Career books and $250 of Elmer's merchandise for the classroom. 

Allessandra's project is titled "Music Memory." The purpose of the experiment is to determine if music can be used as a memory tool in science. She designated key vocabulary words from three different science chapters. Allessandra came up with lyrics for each chapter and wrote a single melody that could be applied to all three.

Her father, Glen West, is a recording engineer, and together they recorded the three songs in the studio: Chemical Reactions; Solutions, Acids, Bases; and Atoms and Bonding. The songs were played on a CD during music class for one group, where they memorized the songs. The control group did not learn the songs. Tests were taken for each chapter. Allessandra determined that the group that memorized the songs had an average test score of 84.75 percent, compared to 76.25 percent for those students that did not learn the songs.

Allessandra is currently a freshman at .