Science Fair Superstars
March 3, 2023The 42nd Annual IUSD Science Fair was a success! Over 300 projects were submitted, representing the work of almost 500 students. Projects and winners can be viewed at https://sites.google.com/iusd.org/iusd42ndannualsciencefair/home.
In the 6th– 8th Grade Junior Division, nearly 70 of the 251 projects qualified for competition at the Orange County Science and Engineering Fair. Thirty-six projects were awarded the Thermo-Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge and will go on to compete at the national level for prizes ranging from $125 to $25,000 and scholarships for STEM summer camps.
There were two special recognitions at the Junior Division. The first award is the Broadcom Coding with Commitment award given to Mikhail Buskin at Springbrook for his work on developing an app to support student acquisition of multiplication facts. The second award is the Lemelson-MIT award for an innovative project that solves a community environmental problem to improve life within the community. Audrey Kim from Sierra Vista received this award for the development of an app that can monitor the health within a beehive and alert beekeepers to drastic and unhealthy change in hive vitality.
In the High School competition, 28 projects advanced to the Orange County Science and Engineering Fair. This is over 40% of the high school projects submitted!
Four projects were recognized by the Irvine Ranch Water District for their work on water quality or conservation. From Jeffrey Trail, Tanav Gopalakrishna’s Trash Trap was recognized as well as Kratika Katara’s Soil Moisture Sensor for Plants from Northwood High School. IRWD acknowledged the collaboration of 6th grade students Max Chen, Jace Jackson, and Gavin Meng for their project on the effect of water acidity on microorganisms, as well as a study on plant’s effect on nitrate pollution by Chakrika Kandepu, Jimin Hong, and Maria Black. These students will be recognized at a IRWD Board meeting.
Congratulations to all of the students who participated for their excellence in engineering and problem-solving. Irvine Public Schools Foundation, in partnership with the Broadcom Foundation, is proud to be a longtime sponsor of the IUSD Science Fair!