By Peyton Dauley
On January 15, Mashpee Middle High School will be hosting its first Science and Engineering Fair for aspiring S.T.E.M. students from grades 7 to 12. There will be about twenty-five projects at the fair and nearly seventy students involved.
The fair is coordinated by Mrs. Soares, and students each have a specific advisor from the science department to guide them in creating their projects. Last Tuesday, Mashpee students met with Woods Hole scientists after school in the library to discuss ideas and develop their own experiments, hypotheses, and designs. Many students were also able to register their projects online, and review the guidelines of the fair.
The experiments all seemed to be unique in design, ranging from junior Ashley Keleher’s question of “How has the population of Purple Martins increased in Cape Cod over the past 10 years?” to Aldona Casey and Stella Bold’s study on the local environment.
On January 15, Mashpee Middle High School will be hosting its first Science and Engineering Fair for aspiring S.T.E.M. students from grades 7 to 12. There will be about twenty-five projects at the fair and nearly seventy students involved.
The fair is coordinated by Mrs. Soares, and students each have a specific advisor from the science department to guide them in creating their projects. Last Tuesday, Mashpee students met with Woods Hole scientists after school in the library to discuss ideas and develop their own experiments, hypotheses, and designs. Many students were also able to register their projects online, and review the guidelines of the fair.
The experiments all seemed to be unique in design, ranging from junior Ashley Keleher’s question of “How has the population of Purple Martins increased in Cape Cod over the past 10 years?” to Aldona Casey and Stella Bold’s study on the local environment.
“Aldona and I are doing our project on succession in cranberry bogs, both active and abandoned. We’re going to be looking at the soil contents and nutrients, observing the plant diversity, as well as taking water samples to test,” Stella said.
Following Mashpee’s own science fair, fifteen high school projects will be selected to be presented at the Region V (Southeastern Massachusetts) fair at Bridgewater State University on March 16, 2019. Some of the top projects at the 2017 Region V Science and Engineering Fair included the “Analysis of Airborne Wind Energy Systems to Enhance Electrical Output” study by two Falmouth Academy students, and a project titled “Long-term Impacts on War-affected Population: Study Using Planaria” done by a student at Canton High School. Eight “First Awards” were given to projects like those listed, along with several other “Second Awards” and “Honorable Mentions.”
Additionally, two projects from Mashpee’s fair will be selected by judges to go directly past the regional event and to the statewide Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair (MSEF) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on May 3-4. According to the fair’s website, $500,000 in scholarships and prizes are awarded to students each year. Encouraging students from all over the state to participate, the website also promotes the opportunity to receive the competitive “Fish & Richardson Patent Award,” that would cover the legal expenses of patenting a student’s design.
The 2019 Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair will be the 70th anniversary of the event, with hundreds of students competing each year. According to the MSEF twitter (@MassScienceFair), last year’s fair hosted 354 judges, with each student talking to five different judges.
“The science fair process also builds essential skills for success in 21st-century careers, such as critical and creative thinking, communication, teamwork and ethical decision-making,” the MSEF website states.