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At Vancouver science fair, students tackle real-world problems

By Patty Hastings, Columbian Social Services, Demographics, Faith
Published: March 2, 2019, 9:32pm
5 Photos
Jeff Genest, a former Skyview science teacher, helped judge Saturday’s science fair.
Jeff Genest, a former Skyview science teacher, helped judge Saturday’s science fair. Photo Gallery

Thought pieces tell us Generation Z will change the world. Local science fairs can give us clues as to how they’ll do it.

Saturday several dozen students competed in the SW Washington Science and Engineering Fair at Skyview High School. The greatest number of projects fell under the earth and environmental science category.

Retired technology teacher Jeff Genest helped judge the competition and noted that many projects looked at what to do with waste plastic with one display pointing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Students looked at reusing plastic bags to make filament for 3D printers while another project looked into putting plastic mesh into drywall to make it stronger. Another project looked at alternatives to corn as sources for ethanol, such as sorghum, amaranth and spelt.

“They’ve really thought really intelligently about their topics and so many of them are relevant,” said Genest, who used to work at Skyview.

Liyu Huang, 16, a Skyview High School sophomore, worked with his classmates to replace some of the sand in concrete with volcanic ash. He explained that as countries increasingly want to build, they’re faced with a sand shortage.

“We figured out that if we replace 25 percent of the sand with volcanic ash we actually got improved compression strength,” he said.

Then, they took the test further. Some builders will reduce the amount of concrete they use by throwing big containers in the middle, which doesn’t add much strength to the structure, Liyu said. His team 3D-printed different tetrahedron designs that could be put inside a concrete cylinder. Labs in Portland and Vancouver helped them mix and cure the concrete and test everything for strength.

He said the project is a continuation of one started last year.

“I’m very science oriented. I’m currently in chemistry, physics and biology, so science is half my school day,” said Liyu, who’d like to pursue a career in the sciences.

Lower cost LIDAR

Camas High School sophomores Julian McOmie, 15, and Gareth Starratt, 15, wanted to create a cheap version of a LIDAR scanner, the technology used in self-driving cars.

“Our end goal is actually to create a system with the LIDAR that can move around and simultaneously map its environment while it moves, localize itself within the environment and use path-finding algorithms. So, then it would be able to navigate obstacles like self-driving cars,” Julian said.

They said their system is slower and less advanced than the technology available today, but the $194 price point is much lower.

“Significantly lowering the cost would put self-driving cars on the fast track,” Gareth said, adding that cost and regulations are the biggest issues facing self-driving cars.

He said he got interested in the project after looking into getting LIDAR equipment to survey the land around his house and learning there wasn’t an affordable sensor on the market.

“I was kind of inspired to create this project to really allow the technology to be available to consumers,” he said.

Cleaner lakes

Sydney Boyle, 17, looked into the types of plants that could help clean up Vancouver and Lacamas Lakes.

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“They’re very dirty. You can see the amount of algae growing in them,” she said.

The Columbia River High School junior tested different types of sedge for their ability to reduce nitrogen concentrations from Miracle-Gro runoff.

“I’m trying to figure out if I plant a barrier, which one would best reduce the concentration?” she said.

She said the sedges helped, but if she could do the experiment over, she would make the experiment longer and test multiples of each plant. She got the idea for the experiment from a class in eighth grade where she tested bodies of water for nitrates.

September Nelson, one of the volunteer judges, said she was impressed by the students who learned from their mistakes and learned how they could improve upon their experiments. For instance, one group of students she talked to learned the downside of ordering insects online (bugs that travel through the mail aren’t the healthiest).

“It’s a great opportunity for these students and such a wide range of topics,” she said. “They’re so articulate.”

As a nursing teacher at the University of Portland, she knows the experience will serve high school students well as they move on to higher education.

The annual science fair is sponsored by Bonneville Power Administration and the winners get an all-expenses paid trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

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Columbian Social Services, Demographics, Faith