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Flagstaff middle schoolers make strong showing at science fair

Three students advancing to state competition

A sixth grader’s experiment to explore the forces that dogs are subject to when jumping has won best in show at the Boulder County Regional Science Fair.

Mandy Roth and eight of her peers at Flagstaff Academy won first, second and third place in various categories at the competition Feb. 26. On Wednesday, Boulder Valley School District STEM coordinator Kristin Donley presented the students with their awards and some celebratory cake.

“They did an amazing job this year as always,” Donley said. “We’re so happy to have you as part of our fair. Thank you for working so hard.”

Along with receiving the top junior division award for best in show, Roth also earned the Office of Naval Research Award and first place in the animal and plant sciences category, meaning she will move on to the state competition.

“It feels really great, especially because I’m doing the project about something I’m passionate about,” Roth said.

Her project was inspired by her dog, Kimmie, that Roth has trained with the Boulder 4x4 4-H Dog Club for the past five years with a focus on agility. Her experiment looked into how the height of a jump changes impact force when a dog lands, which could lead to more injuries for the dog. 

Roth found that while Kimmie landed with more force the higher she jumped, the difference in force between 20 and 24 inches decreased exponentially.

Eighth grader Eli Krause and seventh grader Lakshmi Thanikssalam will also go to state after they placed first in their categories, math and computer science and physics respectively. Krause created a video game to help people learn math, while Thanikssalam experimented with capillary action to see how it differs between various liquids.

“It’s really awesome,” Krause said of winning first. “I wasn’t expecting that but I’m thankful.”

Eighth grader Anna Prok placed second in engineering and won the Ricoh USA Sustainable Development Award for her automatic plant watering system invention.

Diya Mehta, in seventh grade, placed second in medicine and health for her experiment on home antacid remedies.

Sixth grader Bella DiNicholas placed third in animal and plant sciences and won the Lemelson Foundation Award for her creation of an affordable and reusable animal halter.

Elyse Prestopnik, seventh grade, won third in behavior sciences for her project “Does Listening to Sound Help or Hinder the Recognition of Words?”, sixth grader Kendall Toothaker won third in engineering for her biometric locker invention, and seventh grader Victor Wang placed third in engineering for creating a secure password generator.

All 300 Flagstaff Academy middle school students created a project for the STEM Fair unit, with 140 choosing to present at the school’s fair. Fourteen students qualified for the Boulder County Regional Science Fair, with nine receiving awards across six categories in the junior division.

“So everyone in this building learned engineering skills, they learned how to plan an experiment, they learned how to collect data, they learned how to carry it out, so everyone we’re proud of,” sixth grade science teacher Boone Starr said. “These particular folks we’re very proud of. They went to regionals and they did very well.”

Krause and Roth said they were both excited but nervous to be heading to state. 

“I’d also just like to meet and talk to the other people,” Roth said. “I was able to read some of their abstracts and they seem really cool. I’ve seen some other ones on dog health and I think it’d be really cool to talk to the people and learn more about their projects too.”

The Colorado Science and Engineering Fair takes place April 7-8.