Science Fair: Behind Webb’s new afternoon activity

“Is it possible to create chocolate that is safe for dogs?”asked Jimmy Feng (‘21), who used this question to guide his research for science fair. Jimmy's project was an expansion of the experiments he conducted in Advanced Studies Organic Chemistry. In the project, Jimmy tried to remove theobromine, a compound that is toxic to dogs, from cocoa powder. Jimmy tried to develop an effective method to...

Carol Kang (‘21) spent her winter afternoon activity discovering different types of bacteria in compost. Her average afternoon started at 3:30 p.m. when she would head into the lab. She had three different samples of compost split up into jars, where she measured the levels of CO2 in each to determine which bacteria in the compost had the highest rates of cellular respiration. Cellular respiratio...

In the beginning of science fair, Alice Phung (‘21) pushed through mounds of research to find the direction that she wanted to take with her experiments. Eventually she found her project: testing the effect of the acidification of coastal erosion. “I did not know where I was going at first but Dr. Windmon recommended [the project] to me,” said Alice. She was able to replicate ocean waves and Fl...

Angeline Zhang ('21) spent her time analyzing proteins in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Protein buildup in neurons leads to brain degeneration and therefore causes such diseases. Angeline used computational tools to analyze similarities of proteins in different diseases, based on their amino acid sequences and similarities in their 3D structure. Angeline’s project was a “dry ...

Nnenna Ochuru (‘21) was inspired by the plants Webb has around campus. She learned that they are much more than what meets the eye. Her project focused on the proteins in Mexican Sage and Black Sage. Both of these plants are present around Webb’s campus. Mexican Sage is fire-resistant while Black Sage is not. Nnenna wanted to see how scientists could modify these plants to help combat climate change. California is a state that has suffe...

To gather cohesive information about your sleep, extensive tests or an expensive watch is often required. Rachel Bai (‘22) identified that reality as an issue and wanted to create an easier and more accessible way to track sleep. “I wanted to create a low cost but still effective way to measure sleep quality,” said Rachel. Rachel designed and built a small, cheap sleep tracker to monitor qualit...