hopkington High School hosted their annual science and engineering Fair here's a look at some of the great projects and award ceremony
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[Music] last name I'm Ron s I'm sh trassy I'm Evan mat all right and uh what's your project all about here um so we designed uh we were testing different sources of water filtration we tested infrared
light UVC light light and ultrasonic sound to see um how we could build a filter around them and which one could best filter the water terrific and uh how long did you guys work on this uh we've worked on it since September up until now in February so um
we've worked a lot on it about 3 days a week excellent uh what got you interested in this topic uh got us interested in this topic is probably um our own background with this um all three of us have grandparents who live in India and we wanted to help filter
the water um that was uh contaminated and mountainous runoff water that flows down from the um [Music] [Music] [Music] mountains om R Vic raes re
good all right and uh what's project on over here so um we tested this rock we tested the mineral zeolite it absorption capabilities and um we we tested the reduction of nitrate in water to create healthy
water specifically for our project what made it unique was we thermally and sodium chloride modified the Zeet and it actually made it more absorbent the benefit of of being able to absorb nitrate is is saving the world's Waters from being too polluted
and and by harmful Ali Bloom toxins there are there are 2 billion people being affected uh by this problem so we're trying to do is we're trying to find uh a cheaper and and a better alternative awesome and uh how long did
you guys work on this floor since like September yeah yeah like six seven months [Music] [Music] all right so another successful science fair yeah this might be the biggest one
I've seen it gets bigger every year I think yeah it's such a special group of students this year and it was a really great mix of seniors who have been with us for many years doing their last project and a huge great group group of nth graders doing it for the first time so it was really fun to kind of see that
whole Model come together in a special day and uh so 12 of the U participants here 12 participating grp are to the regional that process yeah so the science fair kind of works in a couple
different tiers so the top 12 teams from here will go to compete at WPI next Friday with about a 100 teams from the central Massachusetts region hopkington usually does a great job at that because this is such a competitive fair and so all the students who qualified tonight have a good chance of making it pretty
far then at that fair about the top one-third of projects will'll move on to the state fair that's held at Gillette Stadium it's a really fun day in April and then the top top projects from there will qualify for the international science fair so we have a long ways to go but it's been a really great first night it's terrific it looked like there
were a lot of freshman uh this year was a record set for I feel like it seemed pretty high and one of the things that impressed me about this group of freshmen was their commitment I think often times freshmen realize how difficult it is to do a quality project and this group really like stuck it out and figured out ways to make it work and
really were committed to the whole process um and I was really impressed by the quality of the projects by the end of the year so they did a great job all right hi everyone and welcome to the 37th annual hopkington High School science and engineering fair I'm Kristen
Murphy I'm the director of the science fair program and on behalf of the entire science department and our students and presenters I want to say a big thank you for coming to celebrate such a special night with us here tonight this is the as I mentioned 37th annual fair and it's such a special part of life here at
hopon high school today was such a fun afternoon we had judges many of them science fair alums we had teachers come back people from the community stop by and everyone says the same thing which is this is one of the brightest spots in the year there is nothing more rewarding as a teacher and a mentor than seeing
students find a topic that is exciting and important to them to put in time and effort and creativity to try and solve important meaningful problems and then to gather together to share really exciting and really interesting research there is so much potential in this room
I can't wait to get emails and visits from you and 10 20 30 years to see what kind of amazing work you're doing whether it's in the world of science or in all sorts of other important things we need this room is filled with the people that make me really hopeful about the future and it's such an honor to be a part of this program so
congratulations to all of our student presenters a science fair of this size and this level of sophistication is an enormous undertaking for the whole community so I want to say a few important thank yous first I want to thank our Administration specifically Dr Kavanaugh Mr Bishop and Jen Smith our
department chair who care so much about this program and have given us time and resources and money and energy to make this what it is today so a big thank you to all of them I want to thank the many people around the building that step up every day to help our students specifically even though he's not here right now I
want to say a big thank you to Bob Fleming students who have been in the project room know Mr Fleming very well he shares our space with us he's the head of our maintenance department in buildings and grounds and he is there every day whether it's I need a Sharpie I need someone to help me unlock this door or just like a pep talk that
everything's going to work out in the projects are looking really cool this um colleague and friend of mine has stepped up in so many ways this year even though he's not here tonight I want to say a big thank you to Bob Fleming and the entire maintenance of we also have a great team of mentors that support student projects throughout
the room throughout the year Connor zanini Thank you so much Lauren garau who's not here tonight and then I want to say a special shout out to one of our mentors who has been here for 19 years supporting student Pro projects she started this um uh many years ago and
has been part of many of the environmental science projects some of the most creative projects whenever there's a topic where I say man I just don't know how we're going to do this Charlotte Shire is the person we always look towards Charlotte I believe is here right now and I wanted to bring her out to say thank you this is Charlotte's last
[Applause] year I also want to say a big thank you to the hpto who sponsors our student research projects throughout the year with really generous contributions and it sponsors the prizes here tonight for
the top three teams I don't know if Amy is still here but I know many people in this room give generously to the hpto they're such a great organization and they are the reason we're able to do a a program of this size so thank you so much to the hpto okay and then lastly I want to say
thank you to the families and the students who are here tonight taking on science fair as a former science fair alone myself I know that this is a real family commitment your dinner table conversations about fruit flies and how you're going to make them reproduce or something you're doing car pools I had so many kids this year saying my parents
are waiting I need one more trial and I'm like you got to get out of here there are so many families that rearrange their schedules give those pep talks do so much to support their students we really appreciate how much you care about helping your students see this process through and keeping
encouraging them throughout the semester and throughout the year so thank you so much to all of our families and then most importantly I want to say thank you to the students and I tell them this often but I think it's worth repeating that this is one of the most challenging things you can do in your high school career I don't think
people who haven't been through this process really understand just how challenging it is to build a project from scratch and then have none of it work and have to figure it out again well doing an entire full schedule and extracurriculars of all of your real life responsibility the attitude and
perseverance you bring every day to this is so great and the thing I love most about this program is not the necessarily big scores tonight or these really impressive projects which are wonderful it's seeing all the growth from day one to today every student in this room has made so much growth this
year and that's the most special part of this so I hope whether you're the big winner tonight or maybe are not moving on to Regionals that you see this as a successful experience and that you keep working hard to get a little bit better every day and show that same perseverance you've shown throughout the year so congratulations to all of our
students all right so now for some student recognitions this is I believe the largest senior class we have ever had of science fair students this group started as ninth graders blew us all out of the water by all a ton of them qualifying for regionals in the nth
grade and totally got that science bir bug and kept coming back year after year after year they have been so wonderful to work with they are responsible they're creative they're the kindest kids and they I really can't imagine science fair without these kids next year I want to ask all of our seniors to
come up and we're going to take a picture up here and we also have flowers for all of you so if we could have GMA shria Neu pea kesar Dylan Anushka David k Mark Matthew Pocky Jake and ni please come on up
we're GNA try and take a picture if we can for Mr [Music] flowers your flowers Yesa flowers [Applause]
and then I think and then I think and then and then I think it's also important to take time tonight to also recognize all of our ninth grade students and the future we see in the program in the room tonight so if the
ninth graders could just rais their hand for all of our ninth graders you can see that it's the largest senior class but also the largest ninth grade class we've ever had in school history and there's a lot of really amazing potential scientists and engineers in this group for the last few years we tried to take
a moment at the award ceremony to recognize what we call our rookies of the Year these are the top three ninth grade projects this doesn't necessarily mean they're qualified for regionals it's a very competitive group here this is one of our most competitive fairs in school history but these are three projects that judges identified as
having a lot of potential we hope to see you coming back for future fairs and we just wanted to take a moment to recognize these three top Rookie of the Year teams so in no particular order one of our rookie of the year teams goes to a team that worked really hard on their brown dwarf spectral analysis Elia
and you come on up come yeah come on up come on [Applause] up we also
have a team that worked incredibly hard through some tough challenges and did a great job we have chia seeds effect on diabetes with aroui and and last but not least for our rookies of the year we have buzzing with brain power [Applause]
[Music] congratulations congratulations [Applause] the next prize we're going to give out tonight is one of my favorite prizes that we do and it recognizes a team that is is showcased their perseverance and
their commitment and their creativity throughout the process as many of us know things don't always go smoothly in science fair and one of the most important qualities is kind of never taking no for an answer this prize is named after the woman who started the science fair at Hoppington High School who was my science fair mentor and Mr
Zen's way back when and she's actually here tonight which is so special so valat tansy if you can come on up this is really special for me because Val was my chemistry teacher downstairs on the first floor and her perseverance and creativity and enthusiasm in the classroom made me fall love with
chemistry and every day when I come to work I try and think about who can I try and Inspire like she inspired me so it's so special to have her here and I think there's no better honor than a judge saying wow that kid might not have worked and the data might not have been perfect but that kid gets it and that kid has that something special that's
going to take them really far in life and I really agree with the judge's recognition of this these two students who did such a great job on their project never taking no for an answer just like Val and so we'd like to award the Valerie Lansky prize for perseverance to MAV and arouche for
modeling combustion new oh oh sorry sorry I didn't know if you were going to be in it that's okay okay thank you congratulations congratulations thank you and now for the part you're all waiting for I know I just had to say my thanks Val you're really amazing and had
a big impact but now our top three our top three uh Awards we're ready to after a really long day so I'm going to announce the top three awards they're going to come take a picture and then I'm going to announce the nine additional teams that are Regional qualifiers who will go on to compete at WPI next Friday um obviously if you do
the math most teams in here are not going to make it your regionals but that doesn't mean that you didn't do a great job today and have so much to be proud of I'm also going to ask our regional qualifiers to stay for a minute to talk about some things that have to happen and while that's happen happening students are welcome when we're finished to take their boards and head out if you
want to put your boards back downstairs in the project room you can or you can take them home and bring them home later this week and I know the end's always kind of chaotic so I just want to say again thank you so much everybody for joining us here tonight okay so our third place prize this year goes to a student who's been a committed member of
science fair for many years I'm very proud to announce shria Kumar utilizing CBD as a [Applause] congratulations congratulations St up here in second place another student that I think showed tremendous uh
perseverance throughout the year goes to Amelia Graham understanding understanding the modulatory effects of igna on okay in first place goes to a team that has continued to raise the bar of the hoba high school science fair for many
years they impressed judges with the sophistication of their project their excellent presentation skills so many judges came up to me at the end and just said wow that project is really something special congratulations to Anushka and Dylan from the gleo charge [Applause]
conratulations so in addition to these three teams we get to send nine additional teams to the Regional Fair next Friday um often times this fair is as competitive as that Regional Fair you're competing with the best and brightest scientists and Engineers that our region has to offer I think all of these students have a great
shot of doing really well so I'm going to announce nine more projects to come up and join us the first team that's coming up will be GMA with the a avine a less evasive prototype for the next team goes to Miu and Pia for the effects of
the next regional qualifier goes to kesar with the scientific machine learning therapy the next the next project qualifying for regionals is vagi with understanding [Applause]
neurotoxicity stand right here for okay our next regional qualifier goes to a ninth grade team alikia and shern are headed to for their Brown Bo spectal analysis another uh team that's
qualifying for regionals for the first time goes to devoni and Sophia development and appliation one of the things that's so exciting as I interrupt is so many of the teams up here this will be their first trip to Regionals which is really exciting you see how much they come back year after year and keep improving which is really
fun to see our next regional qualifier will be kais and David from worms to humans [Applause] develop something but we'll figure out this picture our next regional qualifier
goes to sim and Arian for post transcriptional regul [Applause] and our last regional qualifier this is another firsttime Regional participant so congratulations to our Shia investigating the impact of
growth thank you all so much for a wonderful Fair congratulations to all students Regional qualifiers if you could stay up here for a picture and a quick chat that great and thank you all for another wonderful science fair good night thank you