Leeward Community College hosted the 32nd annual Leeward District Science and Engineering Fair on March 15.
The event, organized by Waipahu High School faculty Michael Sana, was coordinated by Leeward science and math faculty. Eighty projects were presented by 110 students from Pearl City, Kapolei, Campbell and Waipahu High Schools. The projects were evaluated and ranked by approximately 70 judges from Leeward, the University of Hawaiʻi System and from the community. Leeward has hosted the Department of Education Fair, supporting the efforts of tomorrow’s scientists, engineers and inventors, for more than two decades.
The top 30 participants will move on to the state science fair, with the top three moving on to the international science fair.
Among the guests at the science award ceremony were Governor David Ige and First Lady Dawn Amano-Ige, Representative Roy Takumi, Senator Breene Harimoto and Interim Deputy Department of Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi.
Top three winners:
First place individual: (cellular and molecular biology): Pre-Membrane Expressed Exosomes as a Potential Zika Virus Vaccine by Floyd Rubonal from Waipahu High School.
First place team: (engineering mechanics): Cost Effective ROVs for Ecological Analysis by Alex Yama and Eric Schlitzkus from Pearl City High School.
Third place: (biomedical engineering) Chitosan Gelatin Microspheres: Using Fluorescein as an Indicator for the Delivery of Drugs to CEM, HeLa and HEK 293 Cells by Deserie Pagatpatan from Waipahu High School.
View photos from the event at Leeward CC’s Flickr site.
—By Kathleen Cabral
