Students mark history with grand championship science fair win
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS — Miller Middle School seventh graders Anessa Morrison (left) and Harper Wilson (right) present their science project to members of the Marshalltown Community School District Board at their meeting Monday.
The machine winning Anessa Morrison and Harper Wilson their grand championship prize.
Miller Middle School seventh graders Harper Wilson (left) and Anessa Morrison (right).
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS — Miller Middle School seventh graders Anessa Morrison (left) and Harper Wilson (right) present their science project to members of the Marshalltown Community School District Board at their meeting Monday.
The machine winning Anessa Morrison and Harper Wilson their grand championship prize.
Miller Middle School seventh graders Harper Wilson (left) and Anessa Morrison (right).
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Marshalltown Miller Middle School seventh graders Harper Wilson and Anessa Morrison were named the grand champions, chosen from 300 other projects at this year's State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa. Morrison and Wilson's achievement etches their names in history as the first Miller Middle School students to ever win the grand championship.
When Harper and Anessa found out about the win, they were shocked, going as far to believe it was a mistake. The girls weren't even watching the live stream of the awards ceremony, and found out about the win through their instructor.
"It was just kind of crazy to see that it actually happened," Anessa said. "It took a really long time for me to wrap my head around it. I still don't think I really have."
The girls said they were not confident at all going into the competition, believing an honorable mention would be their best result. But their lack of confidence was actually a part of what led to their success, they said.
"We were more excited about the project that we were doing more than we were to win," Wilson said.
Their controlled experiment pitted off-brand markers against name-brand markers to see which brand of marker lasts longer.
"We were thinking about things that apply to people everyday, things that people use often," Morrison said. "We like knowing that we're doing it for a reason, and I think that was one of the reasons we chose what we did because it feels like we can make a direct impact on someone."
Instead of using the markers themselves, the girls decided to build a robot made with 3D printed parts, which they learned how to make through a class in the Extended Learning Program (XLP). Using their knowledge from LEGO League, the girls used a heavily modified outline of a LEGO robot and used computer coding to make it work.
The markers go into chambers which then make the markers draw back and forth while paper is fed through the machine slowly. The paper ends up as a long ink strip, a visible representation of how the markers keep their color over time.
When testing the name-brand Sharpie marker versus the off-brand Master's Touch marker, the Sharpie's failure point was at 540 feet and the Master's Touch marker failed at 270 feet, finding the Sharpie lasts two times longer than the Master's Touch.
In their hypothesis, the girls believed the markers would last the same amount.
"That was a fun part of the experiment, being that we were wrong because we actually learned something from it," Wilson said.
The funnest parts of the project for Wilson and Morrison were the trial and error of making the robot work, and then logging the data of their findings to see it all come together. Beginning work on the project in October, the girls put in countless hours of free time including on weekends to get the project finished on schedule.
The girls' XLP instructor Ann Jackson said the girls have demonstrated all the skills intended to be developed through the XLP program.
"It's not just the content of the scientific method or learning how to 3D print something, but it's about learning problem solving skills, being self directed, learning those communications skills," Jackson said. "Through all the different activities and competitions in XLP that we have, they're all just vehicles to help students learn these skills."
The grand championship title earns Morrison and Wilson the chance to compete in the Broadcom Masters Science Competition this summer. The top 30 finalists will then be selected to compete nationally in Washington D.C.
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Contact Trevor Babcock at 641-753-6611 or tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.