Small Town News

LRHS wins statewide science contest third year in a row

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In science, simplicity is often viewed as elegance. Lake Roosevelt High School's science team of Peter Rise and Brady Black designed a simple project that could help them learn a lot about energy and human behavior, change lives in Africa, and bring home the school's third straight win from WSU's statewide Imagine Tomorrow science competition.

The team won first place in the Behavioral Challenge Category at the event held over the weekend at the Pullman campus of Washington State University. The team also won the Advisors' Favorite Award.

For winning the competition, the two students received $2,500, each. $5,000 will go to the school.

Rise, a senior, and Black, a freshman, called their project "Dzuwa Madzi" (Solar Water). They created a solar energy education curriculum for elementary school children in Malawi, Africa. The curriculum uses reclaimed materials to construct a model of a solar cooker, which captures the sun's energy to bring water to a pasteurization temperature.

Rise wrote to WSU journalists to explain the project before the competition. As his sister's friend had moved to the United States from Malawi, he said.

"The stories I've heard and pictures I've seen from his hometown show poverty, hunger, and a lack of sanitary drinking water.... We feel that educating about and helping the African population with the water pasteurization process can greatly increase the health and lifespan of Malawi citizens."

To do that, the team designed a simple system to heat water, using materials that can be found in Malawi: a cardboard box lined with black painted wood, which absorbs heat from the sun and brings the water up to a temperature of 65 degrees Celsius, hot enough to kill more than of 90 percent of the pathogens that currently make about 10 percent of the population very ill. Their curriculum also includes a custom sundial to help See teach children the concept of solar energy.

Early on, the local Rotary Club provided materials to build simple devices that indicate when the water is pasteurized.

Black said he "definitely" wants to tackle another project next year. The mostly after-school activity lost several other members this year to other concerns.

"I'll have to do some recruiting," he said.

A video report by WSU journalists who interviewed the team at the school is linked in this story at The Star Online at grandcoulee. com.

Sponsored by more than 52 corporate, educational and scientific organizations, including the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Bank of America, The Boeing Company, BP Cherry Point Refinery and Weyerhaeuser, the Imagine Tomorrow event challenged nearly 100 teams from 32 high schools to find new ways to shift behavior, use technologies and apply design to address pressing energy and sustainability issues. Teams competed for more than $100,000 in prize money.

Complete results of the competition and more information are available at http://imagine.wsu.

edu/



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© 2011 The Star Grand Coulee, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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