Maine State Science Fair

The 75^th Maine State Science Fair

April 3, 2021

Student Awards

1. Grand Awards
2. Scholarships
3. Category Awards
4. Experiential Awards
5. Special Awards

 Grand Awards

1^st Grand Award –       Linh Nguyen, 12^th grade, Deering High School. Applications of Carbon Nanotube Based Sorbents for Removal of Arsenic from Polluted Water

2^nd Grand Award –      Vetri Vel, 12^th grade, Bangor High School. Readily Implementable Fall Detection System for the Elderly Using Thermal Image Segmentation and Convolutional Neural Networks

3^rd Grand Award –      Mateus Nascimento, 11^th grade, Brunswick High School. How Animals Talk: Understanding Silk Moth Communication through Detection of Pheromones with an Electronic Nose

Scholarships

The University of Maine  

• Ashton Caron, Nokomis Regional High School
• Quinn D’Alessio, Bangor High School
• Maya Elkadi, Bangor High School
• Matthew Gilbert, Greely High School
• Nora Goldberg-Courtney, Maine Coast Waldorf School
• Grace Hall, Belfast Area High School
• Emerson Harris, Boothbay Region High School
• Ashly Nyman, Nokomis Regional High School
• Ogechi Obi, Bangor High School
• Nick Pease, Nokomis Regional High School
• Carter Rice, Nokomis Regional High School
• Zoe Stankevitz, Nokomis Regional High School

College of the Atlantic

• Nora Goldberg-Courtney, Maine Coast Waldorf School
• Emerson Harris, Boothbay Region High School

University of New England

• Siobhan Duffy, Washington Academy
• Maya Elkadi, Bangor High School
• Grace Hall, Belfast Area High School
• Emerson Harris, Boothbay Region High School

University of Southern Maine

USM 4-year scholarships

• Quinn D’Alessio, Bangor High School
• Emerson Harris, Boothbay Region High School

USM Merit scholarships

• Tomas Cundick, Foster Technical Center
• Siobhan Duffy, Washington Academy
• Nora Goldberg-Courtney, Maine Coast Waldorf School
• Grace Hall, Belfast Area High School
• Roland Ladd, Bangor High School
• Uyen Nguyen, John Bapst Memorial High School
• Simon Socolow, Bangor High School
• Virginia Weiss, Cape Elizabeth High School

St. Joseph’s College of Maine

• Grace Hall, Belfast Area High School
• Uyen Nguyen, John Bapst Memorial High School

University of Maine at Augusta

• Nora Goldberg-Courtney, Maine Coast Waldorf School
• Roland Ladd, Bangor High School

 Husson University 

• Grace Hall, Belfast Area High School
• Jordan Boyd, Nokomis Regional High School
• Cassidy Hodges, Nokomis Regional High School
• Ella Donaghy, Medomak Valley High School

York County Community College

• Amber-Rae Pesek, Hancock County Technical Center 

Central Maine Community College

• Lillian Philbrook, Hancock County Technical Center

Southern Maine Community College 

• Virginia Weiss, Cape Elizabeth High School 

Cary James Water Ride Scholarship

• Linh Nguyen, Deering High School

Category Awards

Animal Sciences

1^st –      Patrick Wahlig, Falmouth High School, Stable Isotope Analysis of Maine-Caught Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) Otoliths as a Means of Determining Natal Origin

2^nd –     Runzhe Yao, Gould Academy, Effects of Disinfection Products on Pholcidae

3^rd –      Ashton Caron, Nokomis Regional High School, The Impact Of Forage Quality On Bovine Grazing Patterns

Behavioral Sciences – Psychology

1^st –     Sciatzy Solis, Medomak Valley High School, Comparing Self-Esteem Between Two Immigrant Generations

2^nd –    Vy Do, Washington Academy, Do Teenagers Tend to Stay Up Late?

3^rd –     Olivia Whitten, Nokomis Regional High School, The Impact of Positive and Negative Paper Space on Dyslexia

Behavioral Sciences – Sociology

1^st –     Siobhan Duffy, Washington Academy, Effects of Outdoor Activity on High Schoolers’ Well-being During COVID-19

2^nd –    Ella Donaghy, Medomak Valley High School, Do Demographic Factors and Exposure to COVID-19 Affect a Person’s Use of a Mask?

3^rd –     Chen Xie, Gould Academy, COVID-19, Social Isolation, Demographic Factors, and Feelings about Online Social Events as Predictors of Coping Styles in a Sample of Select High Schoolers in the United States and China

Biological Sciences

1^st –     Mateus Nascimento, Brunswick High School, How Animals Talk: Understanding Silk Moth Communication through Detection of Pheromones with an Electronic Nose

2^nd –    Simon Socolow, Bangor High School, Investigating Large Scale Low Trophic Level Food Alternatives

3^rd –     Ariel Larrabee, Hancock County Technical Center, Designing SynBio to Reduce Prolonged Microplastic Exposure in Fish

Biomedical and Health Sciences

1^st –     Emerson Harris, Boothbay Region High School, Customized Pointe Shoe Padding: Distributed Pressure and Proper Alignment to Reduce Long-Term Deformities

2^nd –    Coco Xu, Falmouth High School, Creating and Applying a Formula that Evaluates the Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease

3^rd –     McHenna Martin, Hancock County Technical Center, Designing a Better Lyme Disease Test

Chemistry

1^st –     Auburn Putz-Burton, Gould Academy, Understanding the Chemical Analysis of Soil at Historical/Archaeological Sites Based on a Study of the Smithtown Historical Society Heritage Site

2^nd –    Jiaqi Li, Gould Academy, How the Extract of Flavor E-Cigarette Impact Daphnia’s Heartbeat?

3^rd –     Grace Leschey, Virginia Weiss, Cape Elizabeth High School, Chloride in streams during the winter

Computer Sciences

1^st –     Nick Pease, Nokomis Regional High School, Creating a Portable Commercial and Private Aircraft Tracker

2^nd –    Alex Hardy, Foster Technical Center, Renewable Energy Rain Generator

3^rd –     Cuthbert Steadman, Beckett Mundell-Wood, Bangor High School, Testing the Effectiveness of a 3D Virtual Reality-Based Online Learning Program Compared to Traditional Online Schooling

Data Sciences

1^st –     Madyson Redding, Old Town High School, Fingerprint Analysis

2^nd –    Maia Pietraho, Brunswick High School, Author Attribution via Frequency Analysis of Stop Words

3^rd –     Jack Nussbaum, Brunswick High School, Is Bottle Redemption Really Effective and How Do You Maximize the Effects?

Engineering

1^st –     Vetri Vel, Bangor High School, Readily Implementable Fall Detection System for the Elderly Using Thermal Image Segmentation and Convolutional Neural Networks

2^nd –    Brady McQuaid, Brunswick High School, Biometric Pill Box

3^rd –     Jordan Boyd, Nokomis Regional High School, The Use of 3-D Printers to Design Prosthesis

Environmental Engineering

1^st –     Linh Nguyen,Deering High School, Applications of Carbon Nanotube Based Sorbents for Removal of Arsenic from Polluted Water

2^nd –    Maya Elkadi, McKayla Kendall, Bangor High School, The Creation of Silver Nanoparticle Tablets to Combat Heavy Metals in Water

3^rd –     Frederick Oldenburg, Roland Ladd, Bangor High School, The Development of an Autonomous Pollinating Drone

Environmental Sciences

1^st –     Swetha Palaniappan, Cape Elizabeth High School, Development of a Diagnostic Test for Microplastics in Water Samples

2^nd –    Paula Dauphinais, Nancy Dauphinais, Nokomis Regional High School, Hybridizing Fungi With Favorable Characteristics to Bioengineer a Potential Solution to the Microplastics Crisis

3^rd –     Ruth White, Orono High School, Investigating the Effect of Ski Wax on Plant Growth

Environmental Sciences – Water

1^st –     Miranda LeClair, Old Town High School, Maintaining Moisture in Soil with Wood Pellets

2^nd –    Ginny Hunt, Bangor High School, Identifying Microplastics in the Sediment of the Penobscot River Watershed using Arc-GIS

3^rd –     Quinn D’Alessio, Bangor High School, A Multi-Point Correlation to Lake Analytics in Developing a Method of Monitoring Eutrophication

Materials Science

1^st –     Ogechi Obi, Bangor High School, Treating Cellulose Nanofiber with Calcium Alginate to Improve Barrier Properties

2^nd –    Jinkyu Kim, Gould Academy, In-Depth Characterization of Nanoporous Carbon Photocatalyst From Coffee Waste

3^rd –     MacKenna Carter, Machias Memorial High School, Preening Oil is an Eco-Friendly Alternative to DWR rain jacket coating

Physics and Energy

1^st –     Mia Smith, Old Town High School, Body Angle and Motion Characteristics of Effective Softball Hitters

2^nd –    Nuthi Ganesh, Bangor High School, Assessing Solar Panel Array Efficiency with a Pyranometer and UVA Meter

3^rd –     Will Caron, Bangor High School, Solar Panel Tilt Angle and Percentage Loss Due to Angle

Plant Sciences

1^st –     Meaghan Caron, Bangor High School, Fallopia Japonica as an Alternative Fuel Source to Remediate the Spread of Invasive Species

2^nd –    Nora Goldberg-Courtney, Maine Coast Waldorf School, Mini Hydroponic Greenhouse

3^rd –     Bryce Carter, Hancock County Technical Center, The Role of Microgreens in Helping to Solve the Hunger Crisis

Special Awards

Algae Foundation

Quinn D’Alessio, Bangor High School, A Multi-Point Correlation to Lake Analytics in Developing a Method of Monitoring Eutrophication

American Meteorological Society

Quinn D’Alessio, Bangor High School, A Multi-Point Correlation to Lake Analytics in Developing a Method of Monitoring Eutrophication

Kate Saidy, Gould Academy, Design of a Spectrometer to Analyze Toxic Algae

American Psychological Association

Siobhan Duffy, Washington Academy, Effects of Outdoor Activity on High Schoolers’ Well-being During COVID-19

ASM Materials Education Foundation 

Ogechi Obi, Bangor High School, Treating Cellulose Nanofiber with Calcium Alginate to Improve Barrier Properties

Association for Women Geoscientists

Miranda LeClair, Old Town High School, Maintaining Moisture in Soil with Wood Pellets

Communicating Your Science Video Award

Emerson Harris, Boothbay Region High School, Customized Pointe Shoe Padding: Distributed Pressure and Proper Alignment to Reduce Long-Term Deformities

Swetha Palaniappan, Cape Elizabeth High School, Development of a Diagnostic Test for Microplastics in Water Samples

The Jackson Laboratory Promising Scientist Award:

Mary McPheeters, Falmouth High School, The Effects of Cover Crops on the Amount of Carbon in the Soil

Avery Matthews, Falmouth High School, Microplastic In Water

Katie Nakai, Brunswick High School, How to Get the Most Strawberry DNA from One Sample

Alexander Benton, Maine Coast Waldorf School, The Effect of Part Cooling Fan Speed on Unsupported Filament Bridging

Audrey Hufnagel, Lincoln Academy, The Effect of Oyster Shells on pH Levels

NASA Earth Systems Science Award

Ruth White, Orono High School, Investigating the Effect of Ski Wax on Plant Growth

NOAA Award

Eliza McPhee, Old Town High School, Impact of Climate Change on Arrival Dates of Select Species of Birds

 Office of Naval Research Naval Science Award

Alexander Benton, Maine Coast Waldorf School, The Effect of Part Cooling Fan Speed on Unsupported Filament Bridging

Vetri Vel, Bangor High School, Readily Implementable Fall Detection System for the Elderly Using Thermal Image Segmentation and Convolutional Neural Networks

Will Caron, Bangor High School, Solar Panel Tilt Angle and Percentage Loss Due to Angle

MacKenna Carter, Machias Memorial High School, Preening Oil is an Eco-Friendly Alternative to DWR Rain Jacket Coating

The Reach Award from the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance

Anna Molloy, James Wheeler, Orono High School, Genomic Characterization of a Novel Mycobacterium abscessus, prophiNQTL-1

Esme Song, Penelope Haydar, Caroline Gentile, Cape Elizabeth High School, How an Increase in Surface Area of Plant Leaves Affect Carbon Dioxide Levels in a Closed System

Regeneron Biomedical Science Award

Albert Bai, John Bapst Memorial High School, Building Up New Lipid Nanoparticles and Evaluating their Potential to Address the Frozen Reality of Covid-19 mRNA Vaccine Stability

Ricoh, USA, Inc. Award 

Bryce Carter, Hancock County Technical Center, The Role of Microgreens in Helping to Solve the Hunger Crisis

Society for Science Community Innovation Award

Meaghan Caron, Bangor High School, Fallopia Japonica as an Alternative Fuel Source to Remediate the Spread of Invasive Species

Stockholm Junior Water Prize

Ginny Hunt, Bangor High School, Identifying Microplastics in the Sediment of the Penobscot River Watershed using Arc-GIS

Quinn D’Alessio, Bangor High School, A Multi-Point Correlation to Lake Analytics in Developing a Method of Monitoring Eutrophication

Miranda LeClair, Old Town High School, Maintaining Moisture in Soil with Wood Pellets

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Award

Frederick Oldenburg, Roland Ladd, Bangor High School, The Development of an Autonomous Pollinating Drone