ODESSA — Marfa High School students competed in the Permian Basin Regional Science Fair Competition this past weekend, a Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) affiliation.
Out of six projects, five advanced to the state competition which will be held in College Station at Texas A&M University. If students progress past state they will travel to Columbus, Ohio, this year to compete internationally.
Student projects explored a variety of topics, from “Clouds and Colonies: The Impact of Vaping on Bacteria,” to “Exploring Martian Agriculture: The Effect of Additives on Substrate Composition for Enhanced Plant Growth on Mars,” and “Predicting Water Quality using AI.”
“Our project explored the possibility to predict water quality along the Rio Grande using AI. This project could be applied to any water source with in-depth current data about water quality,” Piper Donaldson said. “We traveled several times to the Rio Grande to gather information ourselves and also used the data collected by various organizations such as USGS and U.S. Parks and Wildlife as a foundation for our project.”
“I am thankful I had the opportunity to compete in this year’s science fair competition. This experience has taught me a lot about plants that I have never really looked into and even helped me talk to people I never really talked to before,” said Kassandra Garcia. “I learned a lot of different things this year, and I am so grateful that my project partner and I made it to state!”
Here are the following projects and their ranking at the regional competition:
1st Place – Microbiology: Raven Martinez, Ava Flores, Amaya Gomez
1st Place – Earth and Environmental Science: Piper Donaldson, Annaka Salcido, Joangel Davila
2nd Place – Earth and Environmental Science: Ayven Pippen, Giselle Torres
2nd Place – Plant Science: Kassandra Garcia, Mia Dominguez
2nd Place – Physics and Astronomy: Isaiah Ramos, Messiah Licon, Christopher Huerta
Winners of Green Energy Initiative Scholarship valued at $6,000: Ayven Pippen and Giselle Torres