Science Fair Club
News for Immediate Release
4/9/2014
Sequim Winners at the Washington State
Science and Engineering Fair
Figure 1. From left to right – Sequim students: Nicholas Howe, Sean Weber, Alliyah Weber (in front), Willow Williams, Madeline
Patterson, Ron Tognazzini (Mentor), Porter Funston, Deb Beckett (Teacher), Brenden Jack, S. Xavier Conway, Sarah Henry,
Isabelle MacMurchie, and Jade Webb
On April 4th & 5th 22 students from four Sequim
schools entered a total of 19 projects into the
57th Annual Washington State Science and
Engineering Fair (WSSEF) held at Bremerton High
School. This year the fair had 555 participants
from grades 1-12 that entered 469 individual and
team projects and gave away $1.8 million in cash
awards and scholarships. Judging was performed
with the help of 250 professionals that
volunteered over the two day event. Sequim
students walked away with 10 first place awards,
cash awards, and scholarships. See page 2 for a
listing of the students, their grade level or
category, title of their project and awards they
received.
Sequim schools have been participating in the
WSSEF every year since 2005, when Sequim
Middle School Science Teacher Debra Beckett
started the Sequim Science Fair Club. The
numbers of students have increased, and the
generally high quality of their projects has been
recognized every year. As more projects have
been added, other teachers such as Carla Morton
of Greywolf Elementary and mentors Mary
Omberg, Dr. Eric Crecelius, and Ron Tognazzini
have helped with guiding students to excel with
their projects. The purpose of these efforts is to
promote interests in science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM) by giving Sequim
students an opportunity to develop a project of
their choice and a chance to compete with other
Washington State students.
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Science Fair Club
Name
Grade or
Category
News for Immediate Release
Project Title
4/9/2014
Award(s)
Helen Haller
Grade 3
Factors Which May Influence Crystal
Growth
1st Place, Best of Category, Pacific Science Center
Isaac Bratsman
Grade 4
Greywolf Elementary
The Effect of Fertilizers on Algae
Growth
2nd Place
Douglas Crabb
Truman Nester
Erik Christiansen
Grade 5
Alliyah Weber
The Correlation Between Coronal
Mass Ejections and the Sunspot Cycle
3rd Place
Sequim Middle School
Isabelle
MacMurchie
Grade 6
Deductive Proof: The Lonely Runner
Conjecture
1st Place, Bremerton Council PTSA, Broadcom
MASTERS, Graphics Design
S. Xavier Conway
Grade 7
Steam Boat Power
2nd Place
Porter Funston
Grade 7
Solar Panel Efficiency
1st Place, Broadcom MASTERS
Kitiara Hayden
Grade 7
Blowing Bubbles
3rd Place
Brenden Jack
Grade 7
What Caused Gertie to Gallop?
1st Place, Broadcom MASTERS
Aaron Jackson
Grade 7
Angle of the Root
3rd Place
Madeline Patterson
Grade 7
Energy Output of Northwest Woods
1st Place, Broadcom MASTERS
Jade Webb
Grade 7
1st Place, Pacific Science Center
Sean Weber
Grade 7
Willow Williams
Grade 7
Sea Kelp Oil Flocculent
An Investigation of Variables Which
affect HAB Development on the
Pacific Coast of North America
Viscosity of Magma Vs. the Formation
of Volcanoes
Jake Emery
Grade 8
Laser Refraction
2nd Place
Amanda Murphy
Grade 8
Speed of Deicers
2nd Place
1st Place, Broadcom MASTERS
2nd Place
Sequim High School
Nicholas Howe
Engineering:
Materials &
Bioengineering
Properties of Polyurethane
Geocomposite as a Lunar Habitat
Construction Material
1st Place, American Institute of Aeronautics &
Astronautics PNW
Sarah Henry
Environmental
Sciences
Potential Toxic Effects of Coal on
Aquatic Ecosystems in Puget Sound
1st Place, NOAA, Water Environment Federation U. S.
Regional Stockholm Junior Water Prize
Grant Shogren
Trent LaCour
Energy &
Transportation
Iron Pyrite Nanoparticles in
Photovoltaic Cells: The Effects of
Varying Particle Size on Photon
Absorption Rates
3rd Place
Mitigating Seismic Liquefaction using
Magnetized Iron Nanoparticles in a
Ferrofluid
1st Place, Water Environment Federation U. S.
Regional Stockholm Junior Water Prize, Association
for Women Geoscientists - National and Puget
Sound, Washington Society of Professional soil
Scientists, Wolfram Research, Inc. - Mathematica,
Ohio Wesleyan University, The Evergreen State
College, Washington State University - College of
Engineering and Architecture
Katherine Landoni
Earth &
Planetary
Science
Page 2 of 4
Science Fair Club
News for Immediate Release
4/9/2014
standards of innovativeness and scientific
excellence in the geosciences. The Washington
Society of Professional Soil Scientists presented
Landoni with a certificate and an award of $50 for
a project that elucidates soil function. A software
license for Wolfram-Alpha, a computational
knowledge based engine for learning history,
math, and science, was also presented to
Landoni. A renewable scholarship in the amount
of $2,000 per year was awarded to Landoni by
the College of Engineering and Architecture at
Washington State University. Evergreen State
College offered Landoni a one-year full tuition
scholarship in natural and physical sciences, and
Ohio Wesleyan University offered her a $20,000
renewable scholarship for four years.
Figure 2. Landoni, now in the 11th grade at
Sequim High School has been representing
Sequim in the Washington State Science and
Engineering Fair competitions since the sixth
grade.
Sequim High School student Katherine Landoni
walked away with the most awards, including a
first place award in her category of Earth and
Planetary Sciences. Her project used Nano-sized
particles of magnetized iron, in a colloidal
suspension of ferrofluid in the inter-granular
spaces to strengthen liquefiable soil during a
seismic event. Landoni was one of two Sequim
High School students (along with Sarah Henry)
out of three in WSSEF, who are being offered an
opportunity to compete in the Stockholm Junior
Water Prize competition. They will compete for
the best project in water environment science.
Landoni will progress to a round of state wide
competition by registering and submitting a
research paper by April 15th. The winners from
each state will be awarded an all-expense paid
trip to compete at the national competition level,
June 13-14, in Herndon, VA. Landoni also was
awarded certificates, a handbook, and hand-lens
from both the National and Puget Sound
Association of Women Geoscientists as the best
female student to whose project exemplifies high
Figure 3. This is the second year that Sequim
Middle School student MacMurchie has
represented Sequim at the Science Fair
Sixth grade student, Isabelle (Iz) MacMurchie also
won first place for her project that was titled
Deductive Proof: The Lonely Runner Conjecture.
In her proof, this conjecture states that if eight
runners having distinct constant speeds start at a
common point and run laps on a circular track
Page 3 of 4
Science Fair Club
News for Immediate Release
4/9/2014
with a circumference of one; then, there is a
point in time at which each runner is a distance of
at least 1/8 along the track away from every
other runner. This conjecture has only been
proven for up to seven runners since it was first
proposed in 1967.
MacMurchie was presented with an opportunity
to compete in the Broadcom MASTERS (Math,
Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for
Rising Stars) held in Washington, DC in October of
this year. WSSEF awarded this opportunity to 28
middle school students, of which MacMurchie
was one of five Sequim Middle School students.
Nominees enter this nationwide competition by
completing an application explaining their science
project and demonstrating their use of STEM
principles in the development and presentation
of their project. From the thousands of
applicants that represent the top 10% of all
middle school students nationwide, 300
semifinalists are selected, which are then
reviewed again to select 30 finalists. If
MacMurchie is selected as one of the 30 finalists
this year, she will follow former Sequim finalists;
Katherine Landoni in 2011 and Sean Weber in
2013.
In addition, the Bremerton Council of the Parent
Teacher Student Association awarded
MacMurchie one of six certificates and a cash
amount of $20. MacMurchie also was also
presented with the only Graphics Design award
for grades 1-6. She earned an award of $25 for a
display that exhibited visual impact with pictures,
color and text in its overall design.
Figure 4. Weber represented Sequim last year for
the first time, and is shown here as she realizes
her name has just been called for the Best in
Category award.
Third grade student Alliyah Weber won first
place, a pass to visit the Pacific Science Center
and Best of Category for her project titled:
Factors which may Influence Crystal Growth. She
evaluated factors such as light, temperature, and
impurities to determine how they affected crystal
growth. She found that light had no effect, but
temperature affected the rate of crystal growth
and size of the crystals grown. Weber also
concluded with an insight that impurities do not
fit well within a crystal structure, and that if the
crystal formed slowly enough the impurities
could be rejected.
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