A junior at Eastlake High School, 16-year-old Grace Yihua Lee is one of 16 finalists from across the globe in the annual Breakthrough Junior Challenge competition. Founded in 2015, the Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global science video contest that encourages students to create engaging and imaginative videos that demonstrate difficult scientific concepts and theories in the physical or life sciences. “Think: Steven Spielberg meets Albert Einstein,” stated event organizers in a press release.
Lee created an original science video (https://youtu.be/iOfgUdwnqoI?si=nREwI8e1yqhzD2Er) and is now in the running to receive $400,000 worth of prizes, including a college scholarship and a new science lab for her school.
Lee’s video focuses on the Principle of Least Time, which she makes into a fairytale-like story, featuring origami she created herself, in a stop-motion video. Grace focused on the Principle of Least Time because it is a very simple scientific theory, but it impacts many areas of physics.
Lee said for the competition, anyone can make a two-minute video about a college level topic in science, creating and communicating it in an engaging way.
“The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is the largest video competition in the world,” she said. “If I win, I will get a $250,000 scholarship. My school will get $100,000, and one of the teachers who inspires me, my AP Biology teacher Dr. Tom Leete will get $50,000.”
Lee said her video on the Principle of Least Time, she believes is one of the most powerful principles in physics, yet simple enough for high school students to understand.
“It is not a topic that many people know about, but it is fundamental in many different areas of physics,” she said. “I also wanted to incorporate experiments because I believe experiments are fundamental to physical sciences. I incorporated a cute fairytale story, so the Gingerbread Man and the Fox, I interwove with the Principle of Least Time. I think having a story captures people’s attention.”
Lee said she spent a month doing research, doing video, and editing, and explained the principle in a simple way. Lee said in the end, there will be a Top 5 based on judge’s criteria, and the winner will be announced in February 2025.
Lee said she has always been interested in science.
“I have a curiosity about the world around me,” she said. “I am starting to focus more on computational biology, and computer science, looking at how different models and analogies can affect disease. How genes and pathways can contribute to an illness. But I am also interested in many different fields like astronomy, physics.”
Lee mainly has an interest in science communications and generally all science fields. Grace is currently the Education Chair for MiRcore Volunteer Program, a national nonprofit based out of the University of Michigan that engages high schoolers with computational biology and medical research. Lee also has a peer-reviewed publication on a single cell study of the effect of vaping on influenza infection.
