Four local students won grand awards at the Maine Middle School Science & Engineering Fair last week, qualifying them for the Broadcom MASTERS national competition. Charlotte Reed and Morgan Higgins of James F. Doughty School, Abby Caron of William S. Cohen School, and Reid Quirk of Orono Middle School were among the finalists. Each student spent months working on independent science or engineering projects and then shared their work with judges at the Fair, either virtually or in-person.
Reed’s project studied whether aromatherapy affects a type of plankton called Daphnia. Daphnia are great test subjects for studying water ecology and toxicology.
Caron focused on creating an effective way to transport large numbers of apples in an orchard without using machines that consume fuel and produce pollution.
Quirk studied the evolution of microorganisms using yeast and yogurt. Studies like this help scientists to better understand how other organisms could evolve or mutate, impacting human and animal health.
Higgins looked at whether three readily available mushrooms could act as antibacterial agents against common bacteria.
In addition, Connor Moeykens of Orono Middle School received the Broadcom Coding with Commitment Award and Koda Serrecchia of Nokomis Regional Middle School received the Department of Defense STEM Leadership Award.
Moeykens’ project looked at the common teen practice of listening to music while studying and doing homework, and whether the music helps or hinders retention of information.
Kerrecchia worked to build a modular, portable wind tunnel to assist hobbyists in creating better model airplanes and other aerodynamic machines.
A full list of winners, including eight additional area students winning category awards, is available online here. The Maine Middle School Science & Engineering Fair is a project of Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. For more information, visit mmsa.org/maine-middle-school-science-fair.
