Every year, students compete in the local science fair, aiming to become the best in their fields and make it to regionals and beyond. Many students at the school attend regionals and move forward every year, putting in hours of work and dedication. It is part of an intensified science class , but many choose to go the extra mile and attend the science fair. Many students every year have inspiring, well-thought-out projects, and the science fair is an opportunity for them to share their knowledge.
Quinn Roske is a freshman at the school and has participated in one past science fair, advancing to the regional level and placing first. Her project this year was in chemistry, focusing on the effect of preservatives on the pH of orange juice. Roske’s project has the potential to help companies find effective, non-toxic preservatives that best preserve food.
“I chose this project because I think it’s very important to understand what we are putting in our bodies as we eat almost six times a day, and 60% of the foods Americans purchase contain preservatives,” Roske said.
Roske also explained the most demanding and preferred part of her project.
“The hardest part of my project was maintaining consistent variables, and especially the temperature, as it was winter. My favorite part of the project was presenting and connecting with others who were part of the science fair,” Roske said.
Another regional science fair participant was Faraday Pfautz, a sophomore at the school and a first time participant. Another regional science fair participant was Faraday Pfautz, a sophomore at the school and a first-time participant. Pfautz’s project was in the Environmental Science category and focused on how different degradation methods affect PET and sugarcane bagasse. Her project could help reduce plastic use by using alternative biodegradable materials.
“One of my independent variables was degrading with mushrooms, and I found that really cool, as I was able to fully degrade the sugar cane bagasse, the biodegradable product,” Pfautz said.
Furthermore, Pfautz elaborated on how she prepared and her feelings going into the fair.
“A lot of my science fair project was done in school with directions and guidance from my teacher, but at home, I spent about 10 minutes every weekend for about 28 days, just taking pictures of my project and keeping the experiment running, so it wasn’t too much work. And then for [the] science fair, I prepared my poster. It took about five hours, [it was a] very fun arts and crafts project, and then I worked on my presentation. I made sure to make index cards and practice a lot [for] about a few hours. But overall, I was really excited just to get to science fair,” Pfautz said.
Another regional science fair participant was Margaret Saperstein, a tenth grader at the school and a three-time regional participant. Saperstein’s project was a continuation of her project last year, which focused on a biodegradable fire retardant for high performance consistent with rapid formulation. This year, Saperstein participated in the Chemistry Category and aimed to optimize a biodegradable fire retardant for high-performance fire retardant that was compatible with rapid formulation.
“I lived in San Diego for 8 years and I spend [sic] the summer in Washington state so I have been around a lot of wildfires, [and] in that time I have seen the detrimental effects of fires to both human structures and forests so I wanted to focus on finding a way to preserve the forests and not disrupt their ecosystems while protecting homes,” Saperstein said
Saperstein’s fire retardant could eventually replace the current mandated fire retardant because it is biodegradable, less harmful to firefighters and forests alike and stronger.
“The fire retardant I made can [be] formulated 400 times quicker than the one from Stanford and has three-times the fire retardation ability,” Saperstein said.
Tenth grader Orgil Soronzonbold attended this year’s regional fair for his second time in the biochemistry category. Soronzonbold’s project was inspired by his time in the summer at a George Mason camp and concentrated on editing a thermostable hemagglutinin-aged measles protein to extend the temperature regulations so that transport of the vaccine is easier. He did this using protein engineering and computational science to edit the hemoglobin and stabilize mutations that would otherwise decrease thermal resistance.
“I really want to emphasize that this project can really focus on improving vaccine equity around the world because… I need to emphasize that it’s computational right now and I still need to validate it through an actual lab,” Soronzonbold said. “But if my results computationally translate into a real lab, then the protein or the vaccine will be more resistant to temperature. So now more people can have access to it because it’s cheaper to transport. So I want [to give] more access to this vaccine to people around the world.”
Soronzonbold explains that he had to put a lot of work into the project, researching and understanding the topic, but believes it was worth it.
“After trial and error and many attempts, the moment where everything clicked together and actually gave me a successful job, that was a happy moment,” Soronzonbold said.
Soronzonbold left a final note.
“I think it’s really important that people know that if they want to have an impact on things, then they have the resources to do it, especially here in Arlington,” Soronzonbold said.
Students from the school placed extremely well, with Roske earning an honorable mention, Phautz placing second in Environmental sciences, Saperstein placing first, and securing a nomination for states for states. As for Soronzonbold, he won the grand prize and will be moving on to the international fair.
“I would definitely do the regional and normal science fair again because I think it’s a great way to connect with other students and enforce scientific knowledge and practices in our daily life,” Roske said.
