Michelle Abi Hackman
New York
John L. Miller Great Neck North High School
Michelle Abi Hackman, 17, of Great Neck, studied the effect of separating
teenagers from their cell phones for her Intel Science Talent Search behavioral
and social sciences project. After noticing that her friends at a group dinner
were texting each other instead of speaking, Michelle designed a project to
research the anxiety that humans might feel when unable to use their cell
phones. Because Michelle is not sighted, she trained ten assistants to
administer her tests and record the results. She isolated 150 high school
students (some were allowed to keep their cell phones and the rest were not) and
compared their levels of anxiety. Michelle found no significant differences between the groups though data trends may suggest that when students were separated from their cell phones, they exhibited addictive tendencies. At John L. Miller Great Neck North High School, Michelle sings
with the jazz choir and started the recycling program. In her spare time,
Michelle and a friend lead efforts to fund and promote construction of a rural
school in Cambodia for underprivileged girls. The daughter of Daniel and Sarah
Hackman, Michelle volunteers with Reporters Without Borders and is considering a
career in behavioral science research and science journalism.
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