Whiz Kid: Young Santa Monican Studying Pollutants

Owen Leddy, who lives in Santa Monica and goes to Wildwood School in West Los Angeles, earned some high marks on Monday morning. At a Wildwood School assembly, the ninth-grade student spoke about a water-quality project he's leading, under the direction of upper-school advanced math and physics teacher Levi Simons. The project involves studying pollutants in the Ballona wetlands in Marina del Rey.

Also at the assembly, Leddy's fellow students Noa Park (also a ninth-grader) and Paul Nylund (a 10th-grader) spoke about the research they are undertaking for The TIGER Project, which is being funded by a $2,000 grant Simons received from international financial services institution ING.

Simons was selected out of 1,400 nominated teachers across the country. On Monday morning, ING representatives Art Peretz and Mark Ortega presented the teacher with his award. Over the past 15 years, the financial services institution has awarded $4 million-plus to more than 1,500 educators.

“Winners are selected for their innovative teaching methods, their creative approach, and their willingness to go above and beyond to improve student learning," Peretz said at the assembly.

TIGER stands for "Technologically Integrated Geotagged Environmental Research." The project has four themes: air and water quality, drawing meaningful conclusions from data, the social impact of environmental quality, and the economic motivators behind current and potential environmental conditions.

Nylund, who lives in West Los Angeles, is collaborating with ninth-grader Anders Guterman of Hollywood on a project to measure radiation using hand-held Geiger counters and Android cell phones. Park, who also lives in West Los Angeles, is measuring harmful gases to determine their impact on cardiovascular health.

This article was originally published on Mar Vista Patch.

Want to recommend a young person who has made extraordinary accomplishments in the Santa Monica community, for feature in "Whiz Kid"? Drop a line to Kurt.Orzeck@patch.com.

Past Whiz Kids:

• Crossroads Student Wins $12,900 in String Competition

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Correction: Only Wildwood's elementary school is in Mar Vista, not its middle and high schools.