In the spring 2024 semester, the STEM Division challenged current students, faculty, and staff to demonstrate both their STEM knowledge and their artistic skills for the second annual STEM Photo Contest. The campus community was encouraged to submit photos they took that showed a concept, principle, theory, or phenomena of Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics. The subject of the photo could appear naturally in an everyday situation or be contrived to demonstrate a particular concept. The entries did not disappoint!
The winners of the 2024 SUNY Broome STEM Photo Contest will each presented with a 16’ x 20” print on canvas of their winning photo, and winners in the student category will also each awarded an Amazon gift card.
Winners of the 2024 STEM Photo Contest
First Place, Student Category, $100 Gift Card
Title: Mendenhall Glacier
By: Molly Farray
Description: This photo was taken in Juneau Alaska and shows the Mendenhall Glacier. The Mendenhall Glacier is a valley glacier and that has been receding.
Second Place, Student Category, $50 Gift Card
Title: Preying Eyes
By: Alexandra Zalesski
Description: The European Praying Mantis is one of the species of praying mantises that can be found in New York State. This carnivorous predator mainly relies on its sight while hunting. The Praying Mantis is equipped with two large compound eyes and three more eyes placed between them on top of the mantis’s head. This, along with their ability to rotate their heads 180°, gives praying mantises the unique ability to see in three dimensions. When hunting, mantises utilize their raptorial arms, armed with spikes, to hold onto and grab their prey.
Third Place, Student Category, $25 Gift Card
Title: Chicken of the Woods
By: Mason Keefer
Description: In nature (for the most part), a brightly colored organism means it is toxic. But that is simply not the case for this fungus. This is Laetiporus Sulphureus, also known as sulphur shelf, the chicken mushroom, or chicken of the woods. As the name suggests, this mushroom has a high sulfur content. The sulfur content may play a part in its chicken-like flavor. This mushroom grows in shelf-like clusters or in a floret pattern like the picture shown. Caps can range from a few inches to a foot across! The cap is bright orange on the top. In this particular species, the cap has a bright yellow porus underside that looks smooth. It’s internal flesh is white. It typically grows from late spring through fall. The only look a-likes are the chanterelle mushroom, which grows singly on the ground and is also edible, and the toxic jack o lantern mushroom that has an orange gilled underside and can glow in the dark! The chicken of the woods is a hidden gem in the woods of the U.S. If you wish to eat a wild mushroom, seek a professional to ensure it is safe to do so.
First Place, Faculty/Staff Category
Title: Biology of a Leaf
By: Stephanie Balunas
Description: This photo was taken at just the right time and right angle to display the vascular system in this leaf. The midrib, veins, and the venules all work to carry water, food, and minerals throughout the leaf and to other parts of the plant can be seen without magnification.
Second Place, Faculty/Staff Category
Title: Night,…and Day
By: Timmy Bremer
Description: Dandelion flowers eventually wilt and drop and are replaced by a fluffy white seed head consisting of up to 250 seeds. In the “… and Day” photo, the seed head appears as the dark sphere in the center. In the “Night, …” photo, the seed head is less evident and appears white. Individual seeds are carried by small, downy “parachutes,” or pappi, that enable them to be carried by the wind. This method of dispersal allows the seeds to travel up to several meters, and in rare cases, up to a kilometer to new territory. (Text courtesy Dr. Tracy Curtis, Biology)
Third Place, Faculty/Staff Category
Title: Sunset: hex code #F89880
By: Erin O’Hara-Leslie
Description: The orange color of the sky during sunset is due to the scattering of sunlight by particles and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere. During sunset, sunlight has to travel through more of the atmosphere, which scatters shorter blue and violet wavelengths more than longer red and orange wavelengths. This scattering effect causes the sky to appear orange or red during sunset and in this case reflects orange/pink on the rippling water of Cayuga Lake.
