Written by AMA staff (04/1994); Transcribed by JS (05/2008), Reformatted by JS (11/2009)
Aaron J. Passey from Bothell, Washington, spent four hard-working years at Bothell High School. He has been awarded $4,000 to help him with his goal of a Physics Degree at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Aaron was in the National Honor Society/National Junior Honor Society for all four years of high school. He was designated Math Student of the Year (grades 9 and 10) and Science Student of the Year (grade 11). Listed in Who’s Who Among American High School Students (19921993), he won several national honors. In 1993, he was sponsored by McCaw Cellular Communications for the American Academy of Achievement award.
For his Science and Math accomplishments, he was awarded many medals, including the Bausch & Lomb Medal; 41st out of 62,000, National Junior High Math League; State Science Olympiad 1992; Physics, Bridge Building, and Circuit Lab (second place in all three categories); Regional Science Olympiad 1992-1993; Physics (first); Circuit Lab (second); Bridge-Building (third). Aaron is keenly interested in both model aircraft and science, with emphasis on design and electronics. He entered the 52nd Annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search with a research project that required a piezoresistive accelerometer to measure maximum pitch acceleration of model aircraft in flight. He earned eleventh place out of 1,662 entries.
His next project was “The Accelerometer” which measured and displayed acceleration on a bargraph display. He entered this in the Duracell/National Science Teacher’s Association Scholarships Competition, and earned first place in the nation.
Aaron tells us he loves challenges of all kinds, whether model flying, online computer games, science teams, or scholarship competitions. He has entered almost every Pattern contest in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon for several years, and usually placed in the top three in his class. Aaron is an active club worker with Marymoor Radio Control Club, having helped maintain their field at Marymoor Park. During his seven years building and flying, he has completed many aircraft including a Sig Astrohog, a Predator, three RC City Cursors, and a Goldberg Eagle 63.
This past summer, Aaron was employed by Microsoft as a tester for their Excel product, helping to develop the Excel 5.0 software. He has also found time to fly and work on more material for the next Westinghouse Science Talent Search.
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