Panthers Dominate Science Fair

Charlotte Ionata, Editor-in-Chief|April 10, 2019

 

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Placencia and Vargas moving on to The State Fair

Some of our most involved and intelligent students on our campus participate in The California Science & Engineering Fair every year. In the past couple of years PV has become more and more competitive taking over the rankings every year. SMHS and ERHS participated with PV  in Riccardo Magni’s Summer Science Institute. This year everyone of the students that participated in the Summer Science institute and showed their project at The California Science & Engineering Fair was awarded a certificate. PV’s top two competitors were Julia Vargas and Mia Placencia both girls placed first in each of their divisions. Vargas was a first year participant testing grip strength of athletes and non athletes and placed first in her division. While Placencia was a seasoned participant in the science fair she decided this year to test particulate matter emitted from 52 different desk top printers and placed first in her division along with many more awards and certificates.  Both of the Girls will be moving on to the State Science Fair to hopefully be awarded even more awards. They will be presenting next month in Los Angeles for an even bigger competition. If you want to read more about their successes go here: https:https://santamariatimes.com/news/local/education/santa-maria-schools-went-years-without-competing-in-the-county/article_fc881d3f-feba-5090-8420-3db410652413.html

 

My project was about the difference in the correlations of grip strength for athletes and non-athletes and to see how it varied, or if there was any significant difference at all. I was one of the two gold medalists in the life science division and I got best project in the life science division I placed as best project in the entire fair for the senior division. My overall experience was extremely nerve-racking, but it was fun to be a part of the program and meet people who had their own interesting projects.
My project tested particulates emitted from printers while printing to see if they produced a potentially harmful amount. I tested a total of 52 printers, concluding that printers do release a significant amount of both small and large particulates. I won gold and best in my division (Senior Physical Sciences), two special awards from MIT Enterprise Forum and the Air & Waste Management Association, and I was also chosen as one of the projects that will continued onto the California Science and Engineering Fair. I was extremely surprised on how well I did at the fair. Even though I was confident in my project I would have never expected to receive all the awards I did. I really loved working on my project over the summer with a great group of people and I’m happy that I got to spend my last experience in the science fair with them.