By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 6, 2008; LZ01

Aspiring scientists in the eighth grade are facing steeper competition to gain entrance into Loudoun County's Academy of Science.

When it opened in 2005, the school had about 185 applications for 65 freshman slots; last year there were about 300 applications for the same number of slots, and school officials expect a higher level of interest this year. Applications must be submitted to middle school counselors by Friday.

"As the community has gained acceptance of us, our application pool has gone up," said George Wolfe, the academy's director.

The academy is a magnet school for accelerated math and science studies, similar to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, with which it competes for students. The Loudoun academy is housed in a wing of Dominion High School in Sterling, and students attend classes every other day while continuing other studies at their home schools.

Most course work at the academy is outside of textbooks, Wolfe said. The curriculum relies on students' curiosity and hands-on experiments. The pace is brisk, and many students graduate with two or three years of college-level math.

Freshmen and sophomores take a two-year physical science course that covers physics, chemistry and earth science and shows the connections among the subjects. Sophomores are taught research methods. By their junior year, students embark on a two-year research project of their own.

This school year, one student is analyzing what causes crayfish muscles to move and another is trying to develop a way to grow skin cells using nanofilaments for skin transplants for burn victims.

Twelve students are working on projects with students from a partner school in Singapore, who visited the academy in November. Some of those students are studying how the songs of crickets have evolved differently in Asia and North America. Others are analyzing DNA sequences of bacteria here and in Singapore. Wolfe said he is hoping to secure funding to send the Loudoun students to Singapore later in the school year.

Many of the young researchers are receiving guidance and technical support for their projects from scientists and researchers at the Chevy Chase-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which has a campus in Loudoun.

Eighth-graders interested in the academy must submit the preliminary application by Friday and complete a standardized test, if they have not already taken one, later in the month. They also will be required to submit a writing sample on an assigned topic. For example, applicants were asked in a previous year to describe a back yard, as well as an organism that might be found there, from the perspective of a science student.

Wolfe said the admissions committee of teachers and administrators is looking for creative thinking and clear writing.

"We are looking for a fit as opposed to a score. Personality and drive and enthusiasm matter as much as how high they score on a test," Wolfe said.