By Summer Crawford

News Editor

@summercrawfordd

Every year, since sixth grade, Coppell students have come to expect a year long science project, one that not only challenges the brain to investigate a real world challenge, but also delve into their creative side. These projects will then be submitted to their local science fair and from there, regionals, with the hopes of catching the judges’ attention. For Coppell High School students, this year’s regional science fair was a success.

On Feb. 21, 50 CHS students traveled to the Dallas Regional Science & Engineering Fair at Fair Park, displaying their creative and colorful boards amongst hundreds of others all competing for awards. Every high school student from around the Dallas area spent the day interviewing with judges, showcasing their project and demonstrating their passion for science. Allowing students to choose their own topic from the get-go gave them motivation to explore and learn about science.

“We did amazing this year we had 24 students, of the 50 that entered the regional fair, win some kind of award,” AP Environmental Science and Pre-AP Biology teacher Cathy Douglas said. “I was thrilled, it was an outstanding showing of the high school. The kids started the projects in September, developing their topics doing their research; we had checkpoints throughout the entire first semester and when the second semester started they prepared their triboards and entered the school fair, and then from there [we] just got them ready for regionals.”

For Douglas, as one of the teachers who prepared students for interviews, the science fair has always been something that excites her. Moving from Coppell Middle School West to CHS, she has been able to participate in multiple regional and state competitions.

“Saturday morning when we went to set up the projects, seeing that they were all dressed up and they were nervous, taking their pictures and prepping them, that was exciting,” Douglas said. “And then seeing them [showcase] Saturday evening, I live for that.”

Freshman Connie Fralick was one of the 24 select individuals who got an award, coming in with 4th place for her project “Forget-Me-Not” in the Behavioral & Social Sciences category. For Fralick, regionals was nothing new seeing as she had gone once in middle school for another project.

“My project is a study in memory recall in relation to eyewitness testimony,” Fralick said. “Essentially, I staged a unique event and then quizzed people via survey afterwards to see how much they would remember. Though there were indeed some larger trifolds and some with complicated titles, I was surprised to find that I was actually rather comfortable with it all. It wasn’t as scary or intimidating as I thought it would be-it was basically identical to the junior regional science fair concerning the proceedings.”

Winning 2nd place in Behavioral & Social Sciences for their project “Eye Spy an Eyewitness”,  freshmen Aarya Rao and Prayusha Pandey earned a spot, along with Fralick, at the Exxon Mobile Texas State Science & Engineering Fair starting on March 26. All three students and the Special Award recipients will be attending the Beal Bank Awards Banquet at Southern Methodist University on March 18 with their teachers.

“We had this picture and it was kind of like a crime scene and there were four different crimes going on in the picture, so we would go to people and give them the picture and time them for 2 minutes [while they] looked at it,” Rao said. “Then we would take the picture back and ask them questions about it to see how much they remembered. While we were asking them, we would try to persuade them to change their answer and see if that worked.”

When they received the call announcing they were moving onto state, both were in shock.

“At first we didn’t believe it,” Pandey said. “We got a call, and [we thought] maybe it was someone prank calling because some people were prank calling, and then we saw our name on the list and we were shocked. We didn’t expect to make state and so we were pretty nervous at first.”

Although the regional competition invited hundreds of students with unique and promising projects, Douglas knew that these students would succeed. Anything from helping with interview skills to being a supportive figure, Douglas was there every step of the way.

“Real world application, just applying their project to people [and] global issues, those are the types of projects that do very well,” Douglas said. “ I gave them some pointers, that they really needed to sell their project and have eye contact with the judges and to shake hands, stand up and introduce [themselves].”

Fralick, Rao and Pandey all look forward to their upcoming banquet and competition, continuing to prepare and brush up on their interviewing skills. Their months of hard work will once again be put the to test at state.

“From the research to the orchestration of the staged event, which I audio and video recorded along with creating a transcript for, to analyzing the results, I definitely put my best effort into the project,” Fralick said. “I am most excited about the new experience of seeing what state science fair is like and the opportunity I will have to meet all of the really bright, incredible people there.”

The results of the 24 CHS students who received an award at the regional science fair are as follows:

Animal Sciences:

Avery Davis —  Honorable Mention

Behavioral & Social Sciences:

Aarya Rao & Prayusha Pandey — 2nd Place

Connie Fralick — 4th Place

Akshat Sharma — Honorable Mention

Biochemistry:

Frank Zhang — Honorable Mention

Riya Mahesh — Honorable Mention

Medicine and Health Sciences:

Priya Mekala — Honorable Mention

Microbiology:

Abhi Mohan — Honorable Mention

Plant Sciences:

Claudia Wang — Honorable Mention

Chemistry:

Josh Strong — Honorable Mention

Energy and Transportation:

Prathik Tangirala & Naman Adenwala — Honorable Mention

Pranav Anbarasu & Pragat Muthu — Honorable Mention

Engineering:  Electrical and Mechanical:

Sahil Patel – Honorable Mention

Mathematical Sciences:

Sarah Low — Honorable Mention

SPECIAL AWARDS

The Cooper Institute — Exercise / Health / Nutrition

1st Place = Alexandra Baudhuin

2nd Place = Jessica Humen & Ashley Benhayoun

McKinney Amateur Radio Club, Inc.

1st Place = Aaron Sheets

Texas Instruments – Signal Process Engineering

2nd Place = Jasmine Lau

Texas Tech University Department of Plant and Soil Sciences

Plant Science – 2nd Place = Vijitha Kantety

U.S. Department of the Navy / Marine Corps

Naval Science Award — Avery Davis