From underwater vehicles to invasive eelgrass, and from plastic biodegradation to “Space Origami,” Sequim students offered a variety of topics for this year’s state-level judges.

For their efforts, 10 students from Sequim brought home nine first place awards, one second place award and 10 specials awards from the 61st-annual Washington State Science and Engineering Fair, held March 23-24 in Bremerton.

The local youths joined were part of a group of more than 600 who entered the annual competition.

Among the highlights were:

Owen Douglas and Sophie Morton from Greywolf Elementary School entered a team project titled “Space Origami” and were awarded Best of Category Award for Grade 5. In this project, Douglas and Morton were inspired by NASA’s Orion mission to Mars to engineer the shape of a radiation shield for personnel or equipment on the surface of Mars that would take the least amount of storage space when not in use, then could be unfolded for use as needed. The duo compared different origami folded to unfolded configurations to determine that would provide at least 10 times more open volume than folded volume. They tried various types of origami folded shapes and measured the folded volume by area and height and the open volume by filling it with uncooked rice, then transferring the rice to a more regular shaped container to measure its volume. Their findings concluded that an octagonal folded origami pattern could be developed that would produce an open volume that was 19.5 times greater than the volume it occupied in its folded configuration.

Karlie Viada, a student at Sequim Middle School, was awarded Best of Seventh Grade for her project, “Evaluation of Conifer Barks as a Biosorbent for Copper.” She was inspired by a concern for copper pollution of aquatic ecosystems. As part of her research, she found that current mechanical and chemical treatment of effluents to remove metals were expensive when compared to biosorbents. Using 18 types of conifer bark, she ran tests using a contaminant solution of copper in river water. Solutions were analyzed for copper using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL). Results showed one-half of the bark samples removed more than 50 percent of copper from the water. The ability of these types of bark to act as a biosorbent for copper shows much promise.

Vita Olson, a sophomore at Sequim High School, was awarded first place in the Plant Sciences category for the second year of her two-year project titled “In Situ Evaluation of Healthy Eelgrass Meadows as a Function of Available Light and Water Temperature.”

Olson said she was inspired by the worldwide decline in eelgrass meadows and efforts by PNNL and others to restore eelgrass in Puget Sound. In a report published by PNNL in 2014, a problem was expressed with identifying water clarity in nearshore areas of Puget Sound, and modeling light as a key driver of eelgrass productivity and survival to determine site suitability.

Last year, Olson designed an autonomous buoy that was self-contained to support its own power, communications, data logging and sensors for measuring light and temperature over an eelgrass meadow and a buoy that was tethered to the shore for all of those functions except the sensors.

Olson found that the autonomous buoy was the best design for this year’s project. She redesigned two new autonomous buoys with more robust power supplies and deployed them over existing eelgrass meadows near Schoolhouse Point in Sequim Bay and Diamond Point in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The buoys were deployed in the month of July and remained in place until the beginning of December.

During that time, each buoy collected temperature, visible and infrared light measurements on the surface and at a depth of 6 feet in the water. Over 118 calendar days, more than a million usable data points were recorded, plotted and evaluated for analysis from field measurements by the two buoys. The daily total visible and infrared light exposure was averaged over time and it was found that during the duration of testing the Diamond Point site had 158 percent greater water clarity as a function of depth in the water than the Sequim Bay site.

Sequim results, by school:

• Greywolf Elementary School

Owen Douglas and Sophie Morton, grade 5, “Space Origami” — WSSEF First Place – Grade 5, Best of 5th Grade Category Award and Pacific Science Center – Family Membership

• Sequim Middle School

Esperanza Salazar-Garibay, grade 6, “Biodegredation of Plastics by Oyster Mushrooms” — WSSEF First Place, Grade 6

Chance Swartz, grade 6, “Marble Ramps” — WSSEF First Place, Grade 6

Keyana Cundiff, grade 7, “How to Grow Sugar Crystals” — WSSEF Second Place, Grade 7

Chase Swartz, grade 7, “Efficiency of Electrolysis Electrodes” — WSSEF First Place, Grade 7, Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) – Nomination, Pacific Science Center – Family Membership and Bonnevillie Power Administration Tour of a BPA facility

Karlie Viada, grade 7, “Evaluation of Conifer Barks as a Biosorbent for Copper” — WSSEF First Place, Grade 7, Best of 7th Grade Category Award, Environmental Science Research, USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Stations “Outstanding Natural Resource” project and Pacific Science Center/ Family Membership

Richard Meier, grade 8, “Efficiency of Motor Placement on an Underwater ROV” — WSSEF First Place, Grade 8, Navy League of the U.S.–Bremerton Olympic Peninsula Counsel-STEM Award, and Olympic College STEM Award

• Sequim High School

Paola Villegas, freshman, “An Ecological Study of Native and Invasive Eelgrass in Squamash Bay” — WSSEF First Place, Earth and Environmental Sciences Category, Water Environmental Federation nomination to compete in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.

Vita Olson, sophomore, “In Situ Evaluation of Healthy Eelgrass Meadows as a Function of AvailableLight and Water Temperature — WSSEF First Place, Plant Sciences Category, Marine Sciences – Best Marine Engineering for Grades 9-12, Evergreen State College Natural and Physical Science Scholarship, Water Environmental Federation nomination to compete in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, U. S. Army Life Sciences Award.

Sequim students in grades 5 and 6 are pictured follwoing an awards ceremony at the 61st Washington State Science and Engineering Fair on March 23. Pictured, from left, are Chance Swartz, mentor Debra Beckett, Owen Douglas, Sofie Morton and mentor Carla Morton. Not pictured is Esperanza Salazar-Garibay. Submitted photo

Karlie Viada, a student at Sequim Middle School, was awarded Best of Seventh Grade for her project, “Evaluation of Conifer Barks as a Biosorbent for Copper,” at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair. Submitted photo

Owen Douglas and Sophie Morton from Greywolf Elementary School entered a team project titled “Space Origami” and were awarded Best of Category Award for Grade 5. Submitted photo

Vita Olson, a sophomore at Sequim High School, was awarded first place in the Plant Sciences category for the second year of her two-year project, “In Situ Evaluation of Healthy Eelgrass Meadows as a Function of Available Light and Water Temperature.” Submitted photo