DSHS students Tucker Sawyer and Alfredo Salazar’s receiving first place in the Engineering Mechanics division, at the Austin Energy Regional Science Festival. PHOTO COURTESY OF DSISD
DSISD Students Recognized at Regional Science Festival
Several Dripping Springs ISD students were honored at the 2019 Austin Energy Regional Science Festival in Austin this month, which included a first place award in the Junior/Senior division, and first and second place awards by elementary school students.
The wins came against a large and stiff competition of science projects. Approximately 3,000 Central Texas students, from 3rdgrade to 12thgrade, entered the science festival competition, whose purpose Austin Energy says is to “encourage and reward innovative student research, as well as to provide area scientist, engineers, and other professionals a chance to volunteer in the community.”
Geographically, in addition to entries from Hays and Travis Counties, DSISD students also faced contestants from ten other counties: Bastrop, Brazos, Burleson, Caldwell, Comanche, Fayette, Lee, Mills, Washington, and Williamson.
In the Junior/Senior division, DSHS students Tucker Sawyer and Alfredo Salazar’s projects, “Cars to Water,” won first place in the Engineering Mechanics division. “Cars and Water” goal was to prove that cars can be used as a source of fresh water and dealt with extracting water from car exhaust.
“In order to accomplish this task, we had to learn the basics--and we really do mean basics-- of thermodynamics when it comes to fluid systems… and we had to learn how to run CFDs [computational fluid dynamics simulators],” Sawyer and Salazar said in the project’s introduction. “Using this knowledge allowed us to design a condenser based on our exhaust results.”
Sawyer and Salazar also won three special awards: the Ricoh Sustainable Development Award, the Tyrex Group Award, and the Superintendent’s Award. Tucker and Alfredo will advance to the Texas Science and Engineering Fair at Texas A&M University March 29-30.
Several DSISD elementary students also entered projects in the regional event. Eleven won first-place awards, and four won second-place awards.
Winning first place awards were:
Allen Kundukulangara Cijo (DSE), “Lemon Battery”
Adrian Fisher (DSE), “Sugary Solution”
Colton Inglish (DSE), “How Effective Is Homemade Ph Paper?”
Valentina Monti (DSE), “Red Wiggler Munchies”
Cora Stiles (RSE), “Is My Shirt a Heater?”
Jaylyn Stiles (RSE), “Fruit Juice Dishes”
William Tait (DSE), “Different Surfaces and Their Effect on Speed”
Michael Tullos (RSE), “Sprout It”
Hayden Wyatt (DSE), “DNA Detective”
Winning second-place awards were:
Bailey Bateman (RSE), “Are Yawns Contagious?”
Westley Durham Fry (WSE), “Is Solar Power a Useful Source of Energy?”
Mia Mervin (WSE), “Reducing Deforestation through Organic Material”
Jacob Parmeson (DSE), “The Solution to the Sugar Mystery!”