FLINT, MI – Students from 11 counties presented their science projects to judges at the Flint Regional Science & Engineering Fair on Saturday, March 18, at the University of Michigan-Flint.
A chance to win $20,000 in cash prizes and the opportunity to earn scholarships from University of Michigan-Flint, Kettering University and Mott Community College is up for grabs at the competition that wraps up Sunday, March 18.
The top 2 senior and top 2 junior contestants win an all-expenses-paid trip to the international Science & Engineering Fair in Dallas, Texas.
Student projects were divided into three categories — Life Sciences, Earth & Environment and Physical Sciences.
Projects varied widely, from studies on the efficiency of using lightning farms as a clean energy source to studies attempting to make technology that would prevent injury to persons by power operated car windows.
Finalist Riley Mattheis, a 17-year-old from Saginaw, whose science fair project focused on creating implants that would help people take daily medications by administering their medications into their blood daily, appreciated the opportunities participating in the science fair has offered her.
“It’s been really great,” Mattheis said. “I got to do more research in a field I’m interested in and it’s opened a lot of new opportunities for me, especially in school and in applying to colleges for next year.”
Senior Fair Director Jordan Krell said 300 kids will participate in the science fair this year.
Krell mentioned that since the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a shift towards projects focusing on environmental topics, which he credits to the pandemic making projects in labs and other facilities more difficult while there are always opportunities for kids to go outside and do science.
“Students can take an idea, whether that be a question or invention and finish it all the way through and learn a lot from working on their projects but then they also have to learn how to go out and communicate their ideas to someone else, which is a great skill for them to learn,” Krell said.
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