A family trip to the beach resulted in a science fair win for Pioneer Valley High School senior Juan Lara.
Lara is one of three students from Santa Maria headed to the state science fair after qualifying with wins at the county level.
“I went to the beach with my family. I saw there was oil washing up the shore. It was surprising to me, because it’s a beach. It’s a place where I can see nature, and I saw oil,” Lara said about the inspiration for his project. “So I decided to see how often oil spills happen, and then I started to get into how we can fix this problem. That’s when I decided to test the cleanup process of oil.”
To work on his project, Lara, who will attend UCSB next year, took part in the Summer Science Institute, sponsored by Allan Hancock College and started by Pioneer Valley teacher Riccardo Magni.
There, Lara tested the success of oil-eating bacteria on plant recovery. Lara used a typical aquarium plant and measured the amount of oxygen it produced when affected by oil compared to a plant that wasn’t contaminated. Once Lara added the oil-eating bacteria he measured the affected plant’s oxygen production levels. They increased, indicating that the bacteria were beneficial to the plant’s recovery.
Lara won first place in the life science division of the Santa Barbara County Science Fair, qualifying him for the state competition.
Zaid Khan, also a senior at Pioneer Valley, took third place in the physical science division at the county science fair for his project that analyzed shirts that purport to protect wearers from the sun’s rays.
UPF rated T-shirts claim to block UV rays from penetrating to skin and are held to specific industry standards in order to make those claims. Khan’s research found that the $45 shirts that claimed to offer sun protection did so, as compared to industry standards—but so did a $7 cotton T-shirt.
Khan, who will be attending UCLA as a business major next year, said it was a lesson in marketing. “They’re claiming to do something, and it’s just not doing anything more than a regular cotton T-shirt. And I think that’s unfair to customers and false advertising.”
But instructor Magni said there was more than just business concepts at play in Khan’s project, there was also plenty of science as Khan had to use various methods to measure things like UVA and UVB rays.
The county wins qualified the students for the state science fair competition, which will be held May 23 and 24 at the California Science Center at USC.
Lara and Khan will be joined by Santa Maria High School senior Tyler White, who got second place in the physical science division. White will attend UC-Irvine next year.
Magni said White is the first person from Santa Maria High in the 61-year history of the county science fair to qualify for the state science fair.
All three of the students were part of Magni’s Summer Science Institute. The program involved nine students who put in six hours a day, four days a week, for six weeks.
“It’s a huge time commitment. These guys and girls give up most of their summer to do these projects. But these are high level projects that can’t be done just after school,” Magni said.
He said that before he founded the institute just a few years ago Santa Maria had no representation at the county science fair, let alone the state science fair.
“These guys have earned something that’s very special,” Magni said adding that only 24 students in grades seventh through 12th from Santa Barbara County qualify for the state science fair each year. And it’s a pretty big deal. There will be 1,000 projects from all over the state competing for state ranking.
“I feel very happy and excited—and just to visit the California Science Center. I feel proud to represent my school, my district,” Lara said.
Khan said that because he is going to UCLA next year, he is excited to see the campus of what will become his rival school, USC.
Magni underscored the importance of the students’ achievement. “These are some of the smartest kids you’re going to find on the Central Coast right here,” he said.
School Scene was compiled by Editor Shelly Cone. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 5, 2016.
