Nederland Middle/Senior High junior Amika Begin turned her interest in sports marketing into a science project, investigating if social media engagement is an important factor in getting the deals that allow college athletes to earn money through endorsements, social media and appearances.
Her research proved her hypothesis wrong. Instead of engagement — calibrated bydividing components such as likes, comments and reposts by the number of followers to come up with an engagement rate — she found that the number of followers had a greater impact on getting deals. Being good at your sport also matters, she said.
“More talented athletes are on screen more,” she said.
She said her idea for the project came from debates with a coach who was an Olympian on the ethics of paying athletes. If she continues the research, she wants to directly compare athletes with similar abilities instead of choosing them at random.
“I love statistics,” she said. “I thought this project was really fun. I was really excited to do my own project that was totally self made and managed. I feel pretty accomplished.”
Her research was among 142 projects presented Monday at the annual Corden Pharma Colorado Regional Science Fair at the Boulder Valley Education Center. Corden Pharma partners with the Boulder Valley School District to sponsor the science fair.
Middle and high school students from 15 schools presented their original, independent projects to a team of about 100 judges, including local scientists and researchers. All but one Boulder Valley high school participated, as did Boulder Country Day School, Flagstaff Academy, Peak to Peak Charter, Platt Middle, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Southern Hills Middle, St. John the Baptist and Summit Middle.
Thirty-seven projects will move on to the Colorado Engineering and Science Fair in April in Fort Collins, while three regional projects will be selected to go directly to the International Science and Engineering Fair in May in Arizona. Additional winners at the state level also can move on to the international fair.
At Monday’s fair, middle school projects included Siena Halterman’s quest to build a better ballet pointe shoe. The Sacred Heart of Jesus seventh grader is a dancer, but said foot injuries have threatened to sideline her. She added that pointe shoes are notorious for contributing to stress fractures.
Taking inspiration from a ski boot manufacturer that offers a custom gel lining, she set out to create a similar pointe shoe liner. Her initial test of a gel, using a plastic wrapped banana as a foot stand in, took too long to cure. She found a faster drying alternative, then used it on the feet of three dancers to make custom liners. The dancers used three dance movements to test regular pointe shoes versus those with the insert. The result was the insert version far outperformed the ones without them.
“I’m really, really happy with my project,” she said. “I want to keep solving problems for dancers.”
Platt Middle School eighth grade twins, Payal Gopinath and Evan Gopinath, also wanted to solve a challenge related to a hobby. As avid climbers, they were interested in finding the most effective and environmentally safe climbing chalk.
“We were really curious about what’s the best chalk,” Evan said.
They put six different brands through several rounds of tests, including a test that required them to build a machine to measure friction. They also researched the manufacturers to see if they used environmentally friendly practices, did a cost comparison, 3D printed parts and designed their own circuit board.
Their conclusion: There’s no single best chalk. Different brands performed better on different tests, while personal preference for liquid versus powder or cost considerations could influence a person’s choice.
“Different people like different things,” Payal said.
On the high school side, many students competing at the regional fair are enrolled in Boulder Valley’s science research seminar class, while students in the engineering program at Lafayette’s Centaurus High School also entered projects. Students explored everything from improving language acquisition for bilingual learners to the genetic component of fish scale formation to autonomous vehicle pathfinding.
Centaurus High School senior Jack Albenberg worked on incorporating RFID technology (radio frequency identification) into a 3D-printed model of a gun, using a ring to unlock the safety. He called the proliferation of school shootings “unbearable,” including the recent shooting at Evergreen High School where several friends attend.
“It’s a big, big issue for people my age,” he said.
He said he was most proud of designing a super-thin circuit that fits in the open space of most firearms, allowing for ease of implementation. But, he added, the project wasn’t without challenges. He broke several elements, while his first attempt at writing code for the RFID didn’t work.
“It was a lot of trial and error,” he said.
Jessie Yan, a sophomore at Fairview High School, really wanted to build robots. She came up with a project to test the best material for the feet of a robot design that’s based on cockroaches. The small, lightweight robots are ideal for search-and-rescue efforts or space exploration.
To test the different materials, she built multiple robots using cardboard and plastic, folding them like origami. Based on those paper prototypes, she then built a final version using metal with a different material on each foot. While which material works best depends on the surface, she said, Velcro is a solid choice for smooth surfaces.
Like other competitors, she had to make adjustments to her project as she went.
“The robots were really fragile,” she said. “They kept breaking, so I had to keep rebuilding them. I had to change the motors because they were going to one side. It was pretty frustrating, but it was a good learning experience of how engineering actually works.”