WESTFIELD – Westfield High School senior Christopher Clark has been selected to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona on May 8-13, after winning first place overall at the Region I Science Fair at the Massachusetts Collect of Liberal Arts in North Adams earlier this month. He will also participate in the state competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on May 5-7.
Clark said he was nervous as the winners were called at the regional fair. There were two first place winners, and his project was called last, but gained top honors.
“It was a very culminating feeling,” he said. “A really big recognition for all the work that I’ve done.”
Clark’s “Algal Biofuel Production” project was a continuation project from his junior year, when Clark explored which algae might prove most useful to grow for biofuel production. He started to work on this year’s project last summer.
This year he based his concept on a micro-industrial cost analysis of growing the algae all the way to its conversion to biodiesel, hypothesizing whether growing the algae would yield a sufficient amount of dry mass for production of biodiesel at an equitable cost.
The project focused on start to finish, from growing a small culture of algae, to evaporating it in pools. After drying it using evaporation and a food dehydrator, he collected the dry mass, and broke it down to a powdery substance. He then used the FOLCH method of limpid extraction, initially used for limpid extraction of animal cells, to produce a vegetable oil that is flammable.
Clark said his project had three parts: scientific, engineering, and cost analysis.
He said the results showed that using the method of photobioreactor on an open pond produced a sufficient amount of algae to be useful for biodiesel production. After the Westfield High School science fair in February, where he won third place, he worked on further improvements to the limpid extraction of the oil to produce a liquid usable in a diesel engine.
Clark said biodiesel is usable in busing fleets and trucks. Its production is also useful in environmental remediation of the adverse effects of hydrocarbons. Clark said the CO2 being produced by the plants and by other manufacturers can be pumped directly back into the ponds, increasing the algae that also acts as a filter, converting CO2 into oxygen through photosynthesis.
Clark, who has not yet chosen a college, said his dream job would be to work on environmental policy and environmental law for the United Nations.
Altogether, 16 Westfield High School students participated in the Region l Science Fair. Participating students were chosen from among 243 student projects at the WHS science fair.
Each project was judged five times at the regionals. In addition to special awards, WHS students brought home over $1,500 in cash awards. All the students who participated are eligible for the State Science and Engineering Fair which will be held on May 6 and 7 on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Seven out of ten second place medals were awarded to Westfield High School students. These included tenth-graders Zachary Medeiros and Liam Coffey, for their project “Using the Magnus Effect to Improve Efficiency of Aircraft Propulsion,” which won first place at the Westfield High School fair.
Medeiros and Coffey wondered if rotating cylinders would make a drone fly more efficiently than propellers. They took a four propeller drone and replaced the propellers with spinning rotors which they designed and printed out using 3D technology. They then ran a series of tests on a drone with propellers versus one with rotors.
“The rotor performed significantly better in both holding one meter height and in reaching one meter,” Medeiros said.
They then measured its maneuverability in an obstacle course they designed, by attaching the rotors to the drone’s four separate points of rotation and making it more stable, a concern due to the Magnus effect, which propels a spinning ball (or cylinder) to curve away from its principal flight path.
“The application is what’s really cool about it,” Medeiros said at the WHS fair. “By combining a rotor with a conventional air foil, you could make a design with an in-wing rotor. This would allow for a very small motor to control the rotors. You’ve got overall less fuel consumption, more lift, efficiency and practicability. Save fuel, save cost, save the environment.”
Another second place finisher at the regionals was sophomore Cassidy Pawul, who also continued a freshman project with Painted Lady Butterflies (Vanessa cardui). Her premise last year was to determine whether scent was the primary factor in a butterfly’s food choice. She discovered that the butterflies were attracted to the scent of weed killer, rather than repelled by it, resulting in a decline in the life of the butterflies.
Pawul said on a global scale this tendency could cause major problems, because butterflies are major pollinators.
“Last year, I theorized that since scent was the primary factor, if I added something to the weed killer would it deter them,” Pawul said at the WHS fair.
She said the research wasn’t easy, because no one wants to deter them, they want to attract them.
This year for her project “Scent deterrent for Vanessa cardui,” she set up an experiment with mesh habitats, using cinnamon, clove and catnip. She had three different habitats, each having a plain sugar water cup, and a cup infused with one of the three herbs. She then measured what region the butterflies inhabited. Pawul said, by a large margin, catnip was the stronger deterrent.
Other second place finishers at the regional fair included Leena LaFlamme for “The Effect of Swamp Rose and Cattail on Water Erosion by Riverbeds,” Elizabeth Hoffman for “Measuring Skyglow and Light Pollution,” Kristen Stawasz for “Improving Power Output,” Vinee Dave and Michael Navarro for “Developing Hydrogen Fuel at Home,” and Ilona Znakharchuk and Bogdan Znakharchuk for “The Effect of a Static Magnetic Field on the Susceptibility of B. megaterium and B. coagulans to Antibiotics.”
Third place finishers at the regional fair included Aiden Chisholm and Brendan Morrissey for “Hermit Crab Shell Selection,” Evelyna Legkodukh for “Replacing Truss Bridges to Bring Down Costs and Upgrade Strength,” Paige Stawasz for “Protective Pajamas: How water temperatures affect flammability,” and Cassy Dupee and Zhane Catala for “Vibrating wristband with motion sensors.”
“We are so proud of all of our participants in the Regional Fair for all their hard work. They are an inspiration,” said Westfield High School science teacher Donna Mckay.
