GSH actively supported the 65th Science and Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) at the new Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg. Projects were judged on Saturday, February 17. This year, the fair included over 900 projects, a 30% increase over last year, and about 1250 students from the Junior (grades 6 - 8) and Senior (grades 9-12) level divisions. About 150 schools were represented from 23 counties in the Greater Houston area. GSH was one of more than 40 Special Awarding Agencies. Special awards are presented to students with outstanding projects in categories of special interest to each organization. The GSH searched for projects related to geophysics to select a first and second place winner in each division. Additionally, through GSH membership in the Engineering, Science, and Technology Council of Houston (ECH), the GSH will sponsor one of eleven high school students with a paid research assistant position this summer at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The GSH Special Award winners and the titles of their projects:
Senior Division
1st Place: Chloe Luo – “Greenhouse Gas Capture: Carbon Dioxide Conversion to Sodium Bicarbonate from the Reaction with Ammonia and Sodium Chloride Solution”
2nd Place: Praseedha Maddipatla – “CorAI: A Machine Learning Model for Coral Reef Health Evaluation”
Junior Division
1st Place: Max Madof and Levi Leibman – “A temporally calibrated thermometric method for detecting ocean-bottom microplastics”
2nd Place: Serah George and Nubian Outley – “Soil Electricity”
GSH Summer Research Assistant
Victoria Velasquez Anderson – “Reclaimed Sound: Designing Alternative Renewable Energy Source for Underdeveloped Areas Using Electroacoustic Transducers”.
Many thanks to this year’s GSH Special Awards Judges: Shangli Ou, Sara Tirado, Lisa Buckner, Yue Tian, Huw James and Kate Yuan (not shown) who interviewed the students, judged their projects and selected the winners. I would also like to thank the GSH volunteers who served as Place Awards Judges or as judges for other organizations.
Science and Engineering Fair of Houston STEM Festival
On Friday, February 16 the GSH hosted a booth at the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston STEM Festival. After setting up their projects for judging on Saturday, students were given a passport and encouraged to obtain a stamp from every festival exhibit booth. A big “Thank You” goes to Jane Glenn who volunteered alongside me. We explained seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation, gave a wave motion demonstration using a rainbow coiled toy spring, and showed them rock and oil samples. We gave away “Earth is Calling … will you Answer?” posters and 193 GSH logo coiled toy springs. Approximately 144 girls, 124 boys and 14 adults visited our booth.
Photo Credits:
Jane Glenn for photos of STEM Festival table
Lisa Buckner for photos of Afolabi Babalola with the winners
Afolabi Babalola for photo of the GSH judging team
Great job Outreach team and upcoming future scientist!