Flagstaff students shine at Regional Science Fair

Flagstaff Academy sixth-grader Mandy Roth received the top junior division award, "Best in Show," and also the Office of Naval Research Award at the Boulder County Regional Science Fair on Feb. 26. Roth's submission, "Does Jumping Higher Result in a Dog Landing with More Force?", explores the forces that active dogs are subject to on a daily basis.

"I could not be more proud of Mandy," Flagstaff Academy sixth-grade science teacher Boone Starr said. "There were 300 Flagstaff Academy middle school students that created a project as part of our STEM Fair unit. Of those, an unprecedented 140 chose to present at our school's STEM Fair."

Roth's project was inspired by her dog, Kimmie, a female five-year-old lab mix. Roth and Kimmie have trained with the Boulder 4x4 4-H Dog Club for the past five years, focusing on agility the last three years. This hobby piqued Roth's interest in just how much impact the running and jumping of agility training was having on her canine companion, and if adjustments in the sport would help keep dogs healthy.

Roth started her experiment by fitting Kimmie with a WitMotion accelerometer, which measures 3-axis angle, angular velocity, acceleration. She then ran Kimmie through a variety of agility sequences, gathering data each time. As Roth had hypothesized prior to running her experiment, Kimmie landed with more force the higher she jumped. However, she also learned that the largest change in landing force occurred when the dog jumped between 12 and 16 inches.

Roth was not the only Flagstaff Academy student to win an award at the regional finals. Of the 14 Flagstaff students who qualified for the Boulder County Regional Science Fair, nine received awards in six different categories in the junior division. Roth and two other Flagstaff Academy students, Eli Krause and Lakshmi Thanikasalam, will advance to the Colorado Science & Engineering Fair on April 7 - 8.

The additional eight Flagstaff Academy students that received awards were:

Eli Krause (8th Grade): Placed first in the Math and Computer Science category for his invention titled, "Learn Better With Games." The goal of the invention is to make learning math more fun by incorporating video games into the lessons. The project balances gaming challenges and skill level, and provides opportunities to practice multiplication tables.

Lakshmi Thanikasalam (7th Grade): Placed first in the Physics category with her experiment titled, "Capillary Action - Investigation and Empirical Modeling." As part of her experiment, Thanikasalam identified what capillary action is and how it occurs, and explored whether or not capillary action differs between various types of liquid.

Anna Prok (8th Grade): Placed second in the Engineering category and also won the Ricoh USA Sustainable Development Award and Soil and Water Conservation Society Award for her automatic plant watering system invention. For her invention, Prok created an automatic plant watering system using a milk carton, tubing, water pump, and circuit board.

Diya Mehta (7th Grade): Placed second in the Medicine and Health category for her project titled, "Heartburn Home Remedies: Fact or Fiction?" Mehta first replicated stomach acid by mixing distilled water, hydrogen chloride, and sodium chloride. She then tested a variety of home antacid remedies in her stomach acid solution and, by monitoring the pH readings of each solution, was able to determine which home remedy worked best.

Bella DeNicholas (6th Grade): Placed third in the Animal and Plant Sciences category and won the Lemelson Foundation Award for her invention titled, "Reusable Breakaway Halter." Identifying the need for an affordable animal halter that had breakaway functionality but could also be reused, DeNicholas created a halter using Chicago screws and a turtle snap.

Elyse Prestopnik (7th Grade): Placed third in the Behavior Sciences category for her project titled, "Does Listening to Sound Help or Hinder the Recognition of Words?" The results were conclusive: listening to sound does hinder word recognition.

Kendall Toothaker (6th Grade): Placed third in the Engineering category for her biometric locker invention. Using different scientific principles such as computer programming, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, Toothaker made a working prototype of a locker door that unlocks using a fingerprint reader.

Victor Wang (7th Grade): Placed third in the Engineering category for his password generator invention. Using Scratch programming software, Wang was able to successfully create a secure password generator.

About Flagstaff Academy:

Flagstaff Academy is a preschool through eight grade public charter school located in Longmont, CO. Flagstaff Academy is now in its seventeenth year of operation, serving approximately 800 students and employing nearly 95 faculty and staff. Learn more at http://www.flagstaffacademy.org.