Boulder Country Day Regional Science Fair winners go to state

On Monday, February 24, middle school and high school students from the Boulder County area were excited to present their science projects at the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) Corden Pharma Regional Science Fair at the Boulder Valley School District Education Center.

The BVSD Regional Science Fair website explains, "Science fairs allow students the opportunity to research, create, and present while constructing their own ideas through reading informational text, participating in hands-on investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and collaborating with peers to construct oral and written scientific explanations."

Boulder Country Day School in Gunbarrel boasted incredible results from the fair with 25 participating students representing 19 different projects, the most of any competing school.

Several of the middle school participants won awards and two will proceed to the upcoming state competition on April 3 and 4. The awards earned by the school include third place in the Behavioral and Social Sciences and Biomedical Sciences categories, second place in the Behavior and Social Sciences and Plant Sciences categories, and the BVSD Creativity and Innovation Award.

In the Behavior and Social Sciences category, eighth-grader Marin Hayes is advancing to state with her project, "No Need for Speed." Two students were recently hit by cars at the intersections near Hayes' home. Hayes was inspired to take things into her own hands to reduce accidents in this area and throughout the City of Boulder.

Diana Emerson, the Director of Marketing and Alumni Relations at Boulder Country Day School, said that Hayes "conducted speed monitoring on 200 cars to collect data from a school zone, a heavily signed area (where the two students were hit), a control location, the control location at night, and a location with a permanent speed radar. Variable points were assigned based on how fast cars were going over the speed limit."

From her research, Hayes concluded that the school zone was actually the most dangerous, and the heavily signed area was far safer.

Advancing to the state competition in the Plant Sciences category is Boulder Country Day seventh-grader Kyle Shee. For his project, "Growing Fruit (Literally)," Shee hoped to research healthier and safer alternatives to the pesticides typically used by farmers. He conducted his testing by creating different water solutions which he used to water a set of seven plants. The results of his project demonstrated that different water solutions do in fact affect growth.

Both students will compete at the Colorado Science & Engineering Fair at Colorado State University in Fort Collins on April 3 -5.

Shee also plans to continue his testing to learn more about healthy plant growth, and Hayes hopes to provide her research to the City of Boulder to help save lives.