This year’s STEM fair concluded with an impressive participation of 147 student projects ranging from distracted driving to the strength of different 3D printing methods. Fifteen of the students will move on to the Howard County STEM fair at Long Reach High School.

Two hundred freshmen and sophomore students participated in projects related to science, technology, engineering, and math. The multi-step projects were a mandatory part of the curriculum in Earth Science, Biology G/T, and Biology Honors. Students began by finding reliable research sources, designing an experiment following the scientific method, then carrying out their experiment, and writing a multipage report.

Sophomore Lia Conforti, who will be moving on to counties for her project on the flammability of assorted fabrics, said that the project was a valuable lesson in time management due to its strict deadlines. She had to plan out when to finish parts and then create a 10 minute presentation.

Along with public speaking skills, the project teaches students to work with precision, focus on details, and apply what they’ve learned in class.

Projects were judged by a panel of STEM professionals on their hypotheses, ability to make a claim, and scientific accuracy. A few unique projects emerged as crowd favorites, including freshman Nicole Blair’s project on homemade solar panels. Sophomore William Smith’s project on assisstive lifting devices was noted for its impressive use of mathematics.

The following students are moving on to the Howard County STEM Fair: Dhruvil Patel, Kevin Liu, Stella Johnson, Rachel Eisenhauer, Jenny Gloyd, Bailey Dicus, Kate Loughlin, Isabela Rey, Melissa Lund, Tiffany Dang, Beth Virostek, Carly DeSesa, Lia Conforti, Avery Trinh, and Ryan Ingham