The future is now.
A dozen students from the Sequim School District participated in the 59th Washington State Science and Engineering Fair in Bremerton on April 1-2, bringing home 10 first-place awards and numerous other honors.
Five students — middle school students Jace Francis-Wallace, Douglass Peecher, Isabelle “Iz” MacMurchie, Nicholas Charters and Vita Olson — were selected for state nominations for the National Broadcom MASTERS Competition.
In all, Sequim students competed with 525 students from 39 Washington counties in grades 1-12, who submitted 350 projects at the event.
In total, volunteers distributed more than 200 scholarships, trips, prizes and cash awards valued at more than $1.8 million.
Olson, an eighth-grader, entered a project titled “Detention Pond Enhancement Using Phytoremediation.” Phytoremediation is a process of decontaminating soil or water by using plants and trees to absorb or break down pollutants. Olson conducted field and lab experiments to determine how well native wetland plants affect a detention pond`s ability to process and remove pollution from storm water runoff.
For 10 weeks she collected water samples and data from a detention pond and tested for pH, turbidity and nitrates. Her lab experiments utilized planting boxes — one with gravel, one with detention pond plants and one with native wetland plants. She conducted trials introducing storm water and testing it for pH, turbidity and nitrates.
Though her findings were inconclusive because unexpected factors that may have affected her project, Olson received from judges a first-place award and best of the eighth-grade category, along with the C.J. Croswaite Washington State Science Student of the Year Grades 7-8.
MacMurchie, also an eighth-grader, entered a project titled “Modeling Subsonic Loading Capacity of a Composite Wing Spar.” She developed a mathematical model of I-beams made from both composite materials and aluminum. The models calculated the maximum amount of load a cantilever wing spar could take before it either exceeded its elastic strength in the case of aluminum or delaminated in the case of composite materials.
She then went on to build and test an aluminum I-beam by loading it to failure for comparison to her calculated mathematical results. The test validated the model and she concluded wing spars made out of composite materials could be up to 150 percent stronger than aluminum spars of the same size at half the weight. Her insights into the modeling and design of composite materials was rewarded by the judges with a first place in the eighth-grade category.
Sean Weber, a Sequim High School student, entered a project titled “Myco-Treatment of Marine Oil Spills in an Environmental Engineering Category.” Mycology is the study of fungus and in this project he evaluated the ability of mushrooms for sorption, dispersal and remediation of crude oil and gasoline in still and moving water conditions.
Weber studied artist’s conk, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, testing parts of these fresh and dried mushrooms — including caps, exudate (excretions), gills, hyphae (mass of fine branching tubes that form the main growing part of the mushroom) and spawn (reproductive components of a mushroom). Weber concluded that mushrooms show promise as a response to oil spills because they offer a unique ability to sorb, disperse and remediate oil, an all-in-one treatment. Weber was awarded first place by the judges in the Bioremediation subcategory of Environmental Engineering.
Sequim winners at the 2016 Washington State Science, Engineering Fair
(by school, grade, project name, award)
• Helen Haller Elementary School
Reagan Howe, grade 3 — “Why Doesn’t the Whole Ocean Freeze?” (second place)
Alliyah Weber, grade 5 — “Perception of Calories Lost and Replaced” (first place; Robert M. Lugg M.D. award for Exceptional Merit in Medicine and Health Sciences; IMAX pass to Pacific Science Center)
• Sequim Middle School
Richard Meier, grade 6 — “Experimenting with Solar Energy” (first place)
Jace Francis-Wallace, grade 7 — “Alleopathic Properties of Black Walnut Bark” (first place; Washington State Nomination to Register for National Broadcom MASTERS Competition)
Paola Villegas, grade 7 — “Do Planaria Regenerate Faster with Vitamin B?” (first place)
Douglass Peecher, grade 8 — “Do Winglets Work on RC Aircraft?” (first place; Washington State Nomination to Register for National Broadcom MASTERS Competition; Sights of Flight from Museum of Flight)
Isabelle “Iz” MacMurchie, grade 8 — “Modeling Subsonic Loading Capacity of a Composite Wing Spar” (first place; Office of Naval Research-U.S. Navy/U.S. Marine Corps for Exceptional Work in Grades 7-8; Navy League of the U.S.-Bremerton Olympic Peninsula Counsel Best STEM Project; Olympic College-Mathematics, Engineering, Sciences and Health Department for Grades 7-12; Pacific Northwest Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics; Washington State Nomination to Register for National Broadcom MASTERS Competition; Sights of Flight from Museum of Flight)
Zachary Baird, grade 8 — “Risk from a Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake in Sequim” (third place; Best Soil Science Project by Washington Society of Professional Soil Scientists)
Nicholas Charters, grade 8 — “Reducing Drag by Driving at Safe Driving Distance” (first place; Washington State Nomination to Register for National Broadcom MASTERS Competition)
Vita Olson, grade 8 — “Detention Pond Enhancement Using Phytoremediation” (first place and Best of Grade 8 Category Award; Washington State Nomination to Register for National Broadcom MASTERS Competition; National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-Taking the Pulse of the Planet, Family Silver Membership to the Pacific Science Center; Best Soil Science Project by the Washington Society of Professional Soil Scientists; C.J. Croswaite Washington State Science Student of the Year, Grades 7-8)
• Sequim High School
Sean Weber, grade 9 — “Myco-Treatment of Marine Oil Spills” (first place; Office of Naval Research-U.S. Navy/U.S. Marine Corps for Exceptional Work in Grades 9-12; Olympic College-Mathematics, Engineering, Sciences and Health Department for Grades 7-12; Ricoh Americas Corporation for Outstanding Environmental Responsibility and Sustainable Development; Best Project in Water Environmental Science and Washington State Nomination to Register for Water Environment Federation U.S. Regional Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition; Recognition of Outstanding Research in the Marine Sciences for Grades 9-12, Wolfram Research, Mathematica Software License)
Nicholas Howe, grade 12 — “Degradation of Polyethylene Microplastics” (first place; Best Project in Water Environmental Science and Washington State Nomination to Register for Water Environment Federation U.S. Regional Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition, Wolfram Research, Mathematica Software License).
