Chapter Youth Outreach Report: 2022 Science Fairs
This February and March, Chesapeake Chapter volunteers again participated as independent sponsor judges at the Anne Arundel County Public Schools Science and Engineering Expo in Maryland. Our team of volunteers was comprised of six members: Jim Campbell (ASEP), Clinton Hilliard (CSEP), Jim DeCamp (ASEP), Taras Mykytyn (ESEP), Josephine Podolsky (CSEP), and Gary Wieboldt (ESEP).
While once again the project reviewing and judging events were conducted virtually, the award ceremony was held as an in-person affair. Judges conducted a prescreening during a project preview period held mid-February. This allowed judges an early opportunity to examine the project reports, videos, and other information provided by the students. The judges reviewed various projects spanning 6th through 12th grade. To whittle down the list of candidates, criteria was applied for selecting those projects shown to be most in accord with the disciplines of systems engineering.
Early March was when the judges selected the most eligible student projects for live online interviews. Sessions were held via the school district’s Google Meet platform. In the end, the chapter selected four projects that the judges deemed as the most excellent of the broad field of candidate projects.
The Anne Arundel County Public Schools Science and Engineering Expo Awards went to:
Delphia Greeley; Grade 7, Interactive Art: Delphia’s project combined elements of electronics, robotics, and art to create a whimsically themed “statue.
Charlie Larson; Grade 6: Tracking Library Books: Charlie impressed the judges with his methodical engineering approach he applied to resolving recovery of lost library books.
Megan Yeager; Grade 9, Improved Performance with Solar Cooling: Megan created a very novel approach to cooling of solar cells in an attempt at achieving improved performance.
Tristyn Fenner; Grade 12: Gray Water In Your Home: Tristyn built a physical model to examine various challenges in reuse of waste gray-water produced in a home.
At the awards ceremony, lead Judge Jim Campbell presented in person to each awardee a framed INCOSE certificate proclaiming them a winner of the eminent Chesapeake Chapter’s Young Systems Engineer Prize for 2022. Along with each certificate was given an official INCOSE Chesapeake Chapter coin, a congratulatory letter signed by our esteemed chapter president, and monetary award totaling $100 to each student. Finally, the Chesapeake Chapter also provided another $500 to the school district’s STEM programs office as offering our direct support to the event.
The Chesapeake Chapter Programs Committee enjoys offering opportunities for members to share in their experiences and offer encouragement to youth on discovering possibilities in systems engineering.
For anyone interested in earning PDUs and joining us on the committee, please contact us at Programs@INCOSE-CC.org.