By Tammy Daniels - March 16, 2008
iBerkshires Staff
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| Zachary Remillard of Drury won a first place for his work on glove friction. |
NORTH ADAMS — Zachary Remillard of Clarksburg has been working on producing a better-performing football receiving glove for nearly two years.
The Drury High School senior's been comparing the aspects of Dycem, a widely used nonslip material, to standard receiving gloves, in this case Nike.
That means testing both materials for how they stand up to hot and cold, and determining their friction co-efficients, or "stickiness."
Remillard is hoping to get a patent and turn his high school science project into real-world success.
"Maybe this idea will fly," he said. "I'm really excited about it."
He's on the right track: His project tied for first place at the Massachusetts Region 1 Science Fair on Friday, making him eligible for the state Science and Engineering Fair at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May.
Some 60 teams from eight high schools competed in the annual event held Friday at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Schools in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties could participate.
"I'm really impressed overall with the level of competition," said Scott Eldridge, a Pittsfield High School chemistry teacher and one of the judges. He praised the fair for providing an opportunity for students to show their abilities in research and design.
Exhibits ranging from wind power to bee mites to environmentally friendly trash bags to hovercraft to watersheds (and dozens more subjects) filled the gymnasium in the Amsler Campus Center. The region's budding scientists were eager to explain their hypotheses, research, products and conclusions to anyone passing by.
Judges from 27 agencies, schools and businesses awarded prizes ranging from $75 to $300, along with a number of special awards from a variety of organizations.
The students' inspirations were as diverse as their projects:
William Crawford of Westfield High School overheard a conversation at the Hampden County Beekeepers Association that anecdotal evidence pointed to using sumac to kill mites that may be causing recent hive collapses.
That led he and partner Kimberly Dugas to experiment on several hives in December; they found that putting sumac in a bee smoker does, indeed, kill bee mites. It won them a third place in the competition.
Colleen Moretti, Anna Murphy and Mary Salatino of Pittsfield High School wanted to help a disabled student who was unable to feed herself. So they successfully designed a wrist device that would allow her to hold a spoon or fork; they hope to introduce the device to nursing homes for people afflicted with severe arthritis or other conditions. They took a third place for their work.
Twins Caitlin and Matthew Bird, sophomores at Pittsfield High, designed a easy-carry holder for tennis balls. The tubular container can be strapped onto a bike for a ride to the courts, replacing the need for pricier racket/ball cases.
"We spoke to some of our peers and coaches to see if they were interested," said Matthew. "Generally, they seemed to like it but they wanted brighter colors."
Joshua Maclean and Joshua Rodman, both sophomores at Taconic High School, explored the effects of wind turbines on the environment, their hypothesis being that if people could see positive outcomes they would be more likely to support wind turbines. They say they found existing turbines had little negative impact on their surrounding areas and ecologies.
Pittsfield sophomores Patrick Hennessey and Marcus Widitor like the outdoors but find there's often no place to put your trash. So, they came up with a reusable, environmentally friendly bag with a variety of applications that won them second place.
Remillard was one of only two students from Drury High School, the only North County school represented in the fair. The bulk of the exhibits were from Westfield, Hopkins Academy of Hadley and Taconic of Pittsfield. Also represented were PHS, Greenfield High School and Monument Mountain Regional High School of Great Barrington.
Benjamin Carlson of Stamford, Vt., a Drury senior, did his project on wind turbine design. His creation, powered by a fan, put out about 4 volts of electricity. Carlson, who plans to major in environmental studies at the University of Vermont next year, had entered a wind project in last year's fair.
"I'm interested in renewable energy," he said, particularly wind power "because there's no fuel involved."
Carlson's "Wind Study" picked up a special award, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association prize.
Also picking up special awards were Taconic students Melanie Dean, Jordan Eichelser and Morgan Craft, third place and the Northeast Institute of Food Science award "Tray Sanitation"; Jessica Ziemek, the Ricoh Sustainable Development Award for "The Correlation of Size and Shape of Pollen Grains"; Alex Sunderland, the MU Alpha Theta award for "Effects of Rocket Staging on Altitude"; Samantha Kulpinski, the Woman Geoscientist award for "Space Weather Monitoring"; and Jessica Ziemek, for the Optical Society of America award for "The Correlation of Size and Shape of Pollen Grains."
Monument Mountain High School students Gregory Gniadek, Jordan Piazza and Annalucia Lister won the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Land Change and Water Quality for "Housatonic Watershed."
The judging took place in the morning; the exhibits were open to the public for only about an hour in the afternoon.
"I think that they were some wonderful presentations in science here today," said Drury High physics teacher Paul Allen, also a judge. He was pleased with the work of both his students.
Remillard, who plans to double major in biology and chemistry at Williams College next year, with an eye toward a career in biomedical engineering, was excited about the prospects of having access to the college's facilities. He'd already used them for his project after being accepted for the summer science program last year.
"The whole process was worth it," he said, explaining his glove project to a bystander.
"Especially if you get an NFL contract out it," the man replied.
For more videos from the science fair, click here. The awards presented Friday afternoon can be found here. The top 40 winners from each regional fair are eligible to appear at the state science fair in May.
Updated with information on special awards March 21, 2008, 12:43 p.m.
North Adams Regional Hospital went smoke-free Monday — so did all its sister sites, from Sweet Brook to Northern Berkshire Family Practice to the Women's Exchange. No ashtrays, no smoking: No butts about it.
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