By Carly Guise
Editor-in-Chief Red Lion junior Alex Sun has been named Grand Champion of the York County Science and Engineering Fair. Alex, whose project was titled “3D Printing of Biodegradable Materials,” is the fourth person from Red Lion to win a Grand Champion title at the county fair in four years. His predecessors include Alec Gayrama (2015), Levi Jones and Mickayla Smith (2016), and his sister Jessica Sun (2017).
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By Carly Guise
Editor-in-Chief As the school science fair has come and gone, students across the high school have begun preparing for their next challenge: the York County Science and Engineering Fair. The county science fair takes place on Mar. 5 and 6 at Penn State York. Its predecessor, the school science fair, took place on Jan. 5. At the school fair, Alex Sun, junior, was named Grand Champion for his project on 3D printed biodegradable material. Ismail Guler and Shreeji Patel, both sophomores, were named Reserve Grand Champions for their project that dealt with radiation, specifically from power plants. By Carly Guise Junior Editor-in-Chief Jessica Sun has been named Grand Champion at the York County Science and Engineering Fair. The senior won the title on Mar. 8 after claiming the top prize at Red Lion’s own science fair and two days of judging at the county level. “I was both happy and surprised when I found out I was Grand Champion,” she said. “It was not a goal that I set out with. Mainly, I just wanted to research something I was interested in and do a good project.” The title will send Sun to the compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair, which is being held in Los Angeles this coming May. “I’m both nervous and excited for the fair,” she said. “I still have a little bit of work to do with my project before I go, but I’m really excited since the international fair is going to be in Los Angeles. I think that it will be a really cool experience.” By Helen Zeidman Editor-in-Chief One day a year, the Red Lion Area Senior High School’s cafeteria is turned into a center for innovation and research. Students from every grade contribute to this event of creativity and learning. The high school held its third in-house science fair to display the hard work and investigative talents of its student body on Jan. 29. Professionals in various fields of science and technology judged about 150 projects Even though the number of participants was lower than last year, the boards still had a large range of topics, with everything from personality types and plant growth to video games and solar panels. Since students can research any field of science, these projects extended across multiple subjects and incorporated skills from a plethora of areas. This made the fair very diverse. By Aidan Nelson
Staff Writer Two of Red Lion’s very own are attending the International Science Fair. Juniors Levi Jones and Mickayla Smith have qualified to attend. “We are proud of all our science fair participants, and our grand champions. We are excited to see Levi and Mickayla compete at the next level,“physics teacher Mr. Ben Smith said, Head of the Science Department at Red Lion Senior High School. The project that they created is using plastic, known as polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, to create fibers; These fibers can be used to make fabrics. About 25% of the PET is being fully recycled, making it the most recyclable plastic in the U.S., but only 31% of it is actually recycled. “Levi and I had a focus on adding strontium aluminate powder into the recycling process to produce recycled glowing fibers,” junior Mickayla Smith said. Science is not the only thing that happens at the International Fair. Students from around the world get to meet and enjoy each other’s presence. “I’m looking forward to the pin exchange with kids all around the world,” junior Levi Jones said. Levi and Mickayla, along with Mr Smith, are going to be at the International Science Fair, held in Phoenix, Arizona, from May 5 through May 13. By Ian Adler Editor-in-Chief With almost 170 projects submitted, Red Lion managed to take home 24 of the 59 awards available at the York County Science and Engineering Fair Mar. 7-8, including the awards of Grand and Reserve Grand Champion. YCSEF Fair Director and science teacher Mr. Ben Smith attributes Red Lion’s wide range of success to a team effort from both students and staff. “We’ve had the (county) science fair for a long time, but this is the second year that we’ve had a Red Lion fair,” Smith said. “So I think what we’re seeing is the fruits of the labor from the Science Fair Club and Mrs. Stone and some of the other science teachers who have really worked to try and get students to raise their level.” The Red Lion fair scored and placed projects roughly a month in advance, allowing students to improve and adjust their projects before the county fair rolled around. Not all of the Red Lion fair projects advanced on to the county fair, but those that did drew lots of attention. Juniors Mickayla Smith and Levi Jones earned the title of Grand Champion(s) and seniors Tristan Schluderberg and Olivia Tarman brought home the title of Reserve Grand Champion(s), Red Lion’s two highest awards earned at the YCSEF. “We looked at what people find attractive in different faces and then how that perception of attractiveness can affect how they perceive you otherwise,” Tarman said. “In the first part, we had people look at different faces and just pick which one they thought was the most attractive and in the second part, we looked to see if there was a match between what people found as being attractive and what they also found to as being trustworthy.” Tarman and Schluderberg ended up sorting the data of 377 50-question submissions in Microsoft Excel and displaying results and observations on their tri-fold board in typical science fair fashion. Their project was called “Face to Face.” Other multiple award winners included juniors Jason Bernhardt and Jessica Sun, sophomore Anthony Migash, and freshman Austin Kutcher. “We see a great enthusiasm about science at Red Lion and we think that that’s finally starting to show up at the county science fair,” Mr. Smith said. While the projects are required for certain science courses, several voluntary projects found their way into the county fair, including Schluderberg and Tarman’s. Although their project was voluntary, several incentives were still offered, such as bonus points on their final and midterm scores. Schluderberg gives credit to the “unique projects” for much of Red Lion’s success in the county fair. “I think it’s just going to keep building and progressing,” Tarman said. “Before these two years, it had been awhile since Red Lion had done that well in the fair, I think maybe Red Lion’s making a comeback.” Honors science students prepare for the upcoming Science Fair to be held in March.
By Ian Adler Staff Writer As the fall season rolls in and spring draws closer, there is one thing on the mind of Red Lion’s honors science students--the Science Fair. The fair itself is to be held March 10-11 at the Penn State York campus. The students must complete their projects well before this deadline. For those who do not know, the science fair is an annual showcasing of science experiments created, conducted and presented by students. Schools from all over York county send their most intelligent and creative students to represent their schools well. “I’m pretty confident we can get some first places and we have some chances to earn other prizes,” said science teacher Mrs. Valerie Stone. Along with overall place prizes, there are awards for projects in categories like engineering and meteorology or for projects that exhibit things like best statistics. Freshman Dante Zumbo has recently settled on investigating the chemicals involved in cellular death, according to his science teacher Ms. Heather Fogell. “When cells are stressed to the point when they realize they can’t survive, they emit chemicals that will trigger their own death,” said Fogell. Freshman Larissa Herbert is conducting a solo project that is also unique. She plans to “take three different chickens and put them in three different environments to see how the quality of the egg is affected.” In addition to Fogell and Stone, Mr. Blanteno, Mr. Granger, and Mr. Smith are all helping to prepare students for the upcoming fair. With a wide range of student interests, Red Lion will have a diverse arsenal of projects to send to the fair. From the massive amount of work that students will put in to perfect their project, Mrs. Stone has a lot of faith in her students at Red Lion. “At Red Lion, we know what it takes to get a first place,” said Stone. “It takes a lot of work.” |
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