birdsoup

Benjamin Van Doren was introduced to birds in 2^nd or 3^rd grade.  Now a senior at White Plains High School, Ben has turned his initial interest in birds into a passion and scientific pursuit.

For a science project Ben studied data on the migrations routes of 40,000 birds and observed that they changed direction just after sunrise.  His project became one of almost 2000 entries in the national Intel Science Talent Search (formerly the Westinghouse competition).  He was chosen as one of forty finalist and recently went to Washington DC to present his project to the final judges.

Ben was not the ultimate winner, but came in a very respectable fifth place winning a $30,000 prize which will help with tuition as he enters Cornell University this fall.

And it all started in his 2^nd grade classroom