Top student scientists advance to regional fair

Friday, Feb. 27, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Of the 243 middle-school students who competed in the 19th annual Diocesan Science Fair Feb. 21, the 65 who received the highest scores will move on to compete against their peers from public and charter schools at the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair, which will be in March at the University of Utah.  

In addition, nine Juan Diego Catholic High School students will go to the regional event: Connor Helgeson, Amber Wolff, Amado Toledo, Jr., David Fenton, Gabriel Freeman, Alexander George-Kennedy, Kevin Furukawa, Rex Alley and Michael Enda.

“We continually increase our spots in the SLVSEF because our kids do great projects,” said Vicky Simpson, co-chairperson of the Diocesan Science Fair, adding that SLVSEF officials “told us that our projects are high quality, our students are very well-mannered and very professional about how they present their projects.”

Diocesan students had a variety of reasons for entering the fair. Sean Wolff, a Saint John the Baptist 8th-grader, said it was a school assignment, but he chose his experiment – determining if solar panels that track the sun are more efficient than a static display – because he is interested in using solar power at home. Wolff took first place in the 8th-grade Engineering category.

Teacher encouragement helped Maggie Condas, a Saint Francis Xavier 8th-grader, decide to enter the fair, she said; she built a radio telescope and light sensor to look at whether visible light refracts before non-visible light. At the fair she placed first in the 8th-grade Earth Science category, the Overall Earth Science category and also won the Astronomy Special Recognition Award. 

For Edward Lamb, a Blessed Sacrament 8th-grader, “science fairs are fun when you have a good project and you’ve worked on it a lot and it’s been fun making it, and you get a good result and you’re happy with the result. It’s just fun.”

Lamb built a video game for the blind, spending at least 50 hours on the project and incorporating skills he learned at a one-week summer computer coding class that he took at the University of Utah. 

“This was just a challenge,” he said; not only did he write the code for the game but he also did the artwork and acted out both of the game’s characters. “I had to record the voices, act out the voices and then edit the voices – add echoing, pitch changes, make sure that it sounds like two different people,” said Lamb, who won the Frances Lavoie Culture of Life award. 

The judges, many of whom were members of the Utah Knights of Columbus, the fraternal Catholic organization that sponsored the science fair, said overall the students’ experiments were outstanding.

“I was very impressed,” said Mike Martinez, who judged for the first time this year. “With the levels of the grades of the students, their projects were very good. Some of them were pretty easy, but they put a lot of thought into what they did. To see a sixth-grader come up with the project that he did – I would expect that from high school or even higher.” 

Astronomy: 6th grade - Ethan McKenzie, SJBMS; 7th grade - Ben Yarrish, St. Vincent; 8th grade - Sydney Ross, SJBMS

Biological Science: 6th grade - Isabelle Castellano, SFX; 7th grade - Braxton Castellano, SFX; 8th grade - Abigail Gray, Cosgriff

Earth Science: 6th grade - Grayson Heitt, SJBMS; 7th grade - John Flanagan, SJBMS; 8th grade - Maggie Condas, SFX 

Engineering: 6th grade - James Baird, St. Joseph Elementary; 7th grade - Michael Romero, Cosgriff; 8th grade - Sean Wolff, SJBMS

Environmental Science: 6th grade - Pearl Marden, St. Joseph Elementary; 7th grade - Alexis Beauchesne, SJBMS; 8th grade - Olivia Hanson, MCS

Mathematical Science: 7th grade - Amber Hingley, SFX 

Medical/Behavioral Science: 6th grade - Andrea Moreno, SFX; 7th grade - Hannah Gose, Cosgriff; 8th grade - Constance Viollet, Cosgriff

Physical Science: 6th grade - Jake Balog, Blessed Sacrament; 7th grade - Noah Robert, St. Joseph Elementary; 8th grade - Olivia Rollman, Cosgriff

Space/Aeronautics: 6th grade - Colson Horning, St. Joseph Elementary; 7th grade - Grant Leland, St. Joseph Elementary

Honorable Mention: 6th grade - James Baird, St. Joseph Elementary; 7th grade - Michael Romero, Cosgriff; 8th grade – Olivia Haddadin

Overall: 6th grade - Pearl Marden, St. Joseph Elementary; 7th grade - Noah Robert, St. Joseph Elementary; 8th grade - Constance Viollet, Cosgriff

Overall Biological Science: Abigail Gray, Cosgriff

Overall Earth Science: Maggie Condas, SFX

Overall Engineering: Michael Romero, Cosgriff

Overall Environmental Science: Pearl Marden, St. Joseph Elementary

Overall Medical/Behavioral Science: Constance Viollet, Cosgriff

Overall Physical Science:  Noah Robert, St. Joseph Elementary

Overall Space/Aeronautics: Grant Leland, St. Joseph Elementary

Best Use of Mathematics: Gabby Faulkner, St. Joseph Elementary

Best Working Model: James Baird, St. Joseph Elementary

Best Oral Presentation: Olivia Culley, SFX

Most Unique Visual Display: Cloe Bentz, SJBMS

Frances Lavoie Culture of Life: Edward Lamb, Blessed Sacrament

Astronomy: Maggie Condas, SFX

Young Scientist of the Year: Constance Viollet, Cosgriff