Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993 TAG: 9303020170
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
RADFORD HIGH SENIOR NOT HIDING TALENT UNDERGROUND
Kass Kastning faces some serious competition at the Westinghouse Science Talent Search - the World Series of science fairs - this week.Kastning is one of 40 high-school seniors chosen to participate in the event, which attracts America's brightest, most creative science students.
Beginning Thursday, he'll undergo a grueling week of interviews and examinations in the capital of pointed questions, Washington, D.C.
His inquisitors will be renowned scientists, including one Nobel Prize-winner, and the big prize is a $40,000 scholarship.
That's heady stuff for a 17-year-old Radford High School student.
But you get the impression from talking to Kastning that he'll be a winner - one way or the other - in the biggest contest of all: Life.
Kastning is a lanky, soft-spoken, informal, young man who's already discovered his niche - underground.
His scientific paper, the basis of the competition, is "Evolution of a Karstic Ground Water System." A display he built to accompany his paper is titled "Speleogenesis."
"That means formation of caves," he explains to the uninformed.
His interest in caves, spelunking and geology is a character trait passed on by heredity. Kastning's parents, Ernst and Karen, are geologists who met in a cave.
Kass' personal head start program began as an infant when his parents carried him along papoose-style on their caving expeditions.
Later, when the Kastnings joined the faculty of Radford University, their subterranean sojourns focused on the Shenandoah Valley and its extensive system of caves.
That's what led Kass to Northeastern Augusta County and Cave Hill, a small hump honeycombed with caves and passageways, which is the locale of his study.
Over the past four years, he's come to know Cave Hill inside and out by all sorts of methods, from scientific research in laboratories to crawling through cramped, muddy underground corridors.
Basically, the study detailed in Kastning's paper began four years ago - when he was too young to drive himself to Augusta County - and has progressively grown in detail and sophistication.
One factor in his success has been help from a number of academic mentors who have guided his challenging study, which discusses the age and the formative processes of Cave Hill's caverns.
The others have been Kastning's curiousity and drive, which motivate him to produce on a level comparable to a college graduate student.
"You have to be willing to work," he said. "I have to skip out on a few movies."
Already, Kastning has won more than two dozen top awards in science fairs and competitions, which he has been entering since the sixth grade.
His parents emphasize that although they've produced advice and support, the work's been all Kass'.
"He's very bright, very involved in different things," said Mary Norris, Kastning's physics teacher at Radford High School.
"What impresses me the most is that he does all this on his own time," she added. "It's obvious he really loves it."
Kastning has managed to be focused without succumbing to nerd-itis. He's an Eagle Scout, a drum captain of the Radford High band and a drummer in the school's jazz band.
Studying ground water and caves is "an environmental thing," vital to preserving and protecting water sources for the future - particularly in this region, he says.
The fact that Kastning's project was selected to compete at this week's science fair means he has joined "a very select group of young people," said William MacLaurin, a spokesman for Westinghouse. "It's no mean accomplishment."
Kastning is one of four Virginia finalists chosen from 1,667 entries. Two other area students, Rebecca Farkas of Blacksburg, and Brooks Moses of Newport, were among 300 students named as semifinalists.
This week, Kastning will meet with a panel of eight judges who will evaluate his project and his know-how. "I have no idea what they're going to ask," he said.
At worst, Westinghouse is picking up his tab for the week, and he's already earned a $1,000 scholarship as a finalist.
When the contest is over, Kastning has other projects to pursue. He's already been accepted at James Madison University but is continuing to look at other schools.
Despite all the hoopla, one of his primary concerns is more typical of a high school senior. Another contest in Mississippi he's entered begins on the same day in May as his school prom.
Kass Kastning, young scientist, says he's trying to figure out a way to attend both.