LIHU‘E — Noe Murray’s mom is going to have to wait a few more months to get her laundry room back. Murray won second-place honors in the seniors division of the Kaua‘i District Regional Science Fair, Friday night at the
LIHU‘E — Noe Murray’s mom is going to have to wait a few more months to get her laundry room back.
Murray won second-place honors in the seniors division of the Kaua‘i District Regional Science Fair, Friday night at the War Memorial Convention Hall before a crowd that filled the main theater auditorium.
That was one of the new facets to the annual science fair, along with the addition of several vendor displays and exhibits to motivate students into science-related careers and opportunities, said Lisa McDonald, coordinator for this year’s event.
Murray’s project — “The Effects of Various Carbon Sources on the Growth Rate and Lipid Production of Chlorella sp.” — had transformed the family’s laundry room into a laboratory where the Kaua‘i High School student was immersed in routines with the algae twice daily. Chlorella sp. is a type of algae utilized in biofuels.
“This is my first year doing a science fair project,” Murray said. “I started on Jan. 3, and after doing three different experiments to get it right, I was involved with the project every single day since Feb. 15.”
As the second-place finisher in the senior division, Murray advances to the state competition along with the top five finishers in both the senior and junior divisions, McDonald said. That event starts March 28 on O‘ahu.
However, in addition to the state competition, the top three finishers in the senior division advance to the international competition which will be held later this year in Los Angeles, Calif.
“She wants to re-do the experiment for the state competition,” the Kaua‘i 10th grade student’s mom said, following the announcement. “And when is the international competition? Our laundry room is a laboratory right now; we need to do laundry.”
First place in the senior division went to the Kaua‘i High School team of Alyssa Braun, Ashley Bonilla and Meghan Fujimoto for its “Harvesting electricity through the installation of a cost-efficient mini-hydro turbine into the existing domestic water supply.”
That topic caught the eye of Apollo Kaua‘i judges who roamed through the more than 60 projects.
“We were going to give out just one award of $50,” Pat Gegen said during the awards ceremony. “But there were two outstanding projects so we split the award equally between the two.”
In addition to the Kaua‘i team, the duo of Ku‘ulei Rapozo and Ke‘ala Lopez of the Kawaikini New Century Public Charter School earned the Apollo Kaua‘i award for their “Ditch Power” display which concluded that by utilizing a series of mini hydro turbines, the Kawaikini school could be energy self-sufficient by drawing off the nearby stream, or ditch, and reservoirs.
Third place, and advancing to both the state and international competition, went to the Kapa‘a High School trio of Savannah Frisk, Coral Green and Shanice Grijalva for “Who Do You Listen To?”
The Kaua‘i team of Megan Walsh and Derek Fisher, the Kapa‘a team of Cameron Williamson and Peter Sizelove, and the Waimea team of Alexys Bermudez and Regina Miner rounded out the scoring leaders for the seniors.
Julia Hirano of Waimea Canyon Middle School earned top honors in the junior division for her “Is Your Grass Really ‘Green’?” project which analyzed the different amounts of nitrites in fertilizers.
Jacob Rausch of Kapa‘a Middle School earned second-place honors for “The Effects of Chemical and Organic Fertilizers on Brine Shrimp,” and the team of Shabd Edralin and Ethan Whatmore of St. Catherine School took third place with its “Water Rockets” project, measuring the effectiveness of more water, or more air, to propel the rocket farther.
Kayla Ishida and McKenna Pascua, both Waimea Canyon Middle School students, rounded out the top five in that division.
McDonald said top students earned monetary awards and their trips to the state and international competition are made possible through the efforts of the fair’s major sponsors including Alexander and Baldwin, the BASF Plant Science, the Department of Education Kaua‘i Complex Area, the Hawai‘i Academy of Science, the County of Kaua‘i, the Kaua‘i Economic Development Board, Kaua‘i Island Utilities Cooperative, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Syngenta, Inc.
