The Student News Site of Mililani High School

Trojan Times

The Student News Site of Mililani High School

Trojan Times

The Student News Site of Mililani High School

Trojan Times

The Cost of Paradise
Dannika Pila and Arie YamasakiFebruary 7, 2024
Left to right: Trumpets Rylan Akau-Morgan, Peyton Kahiapo and Skylar Hamasu stand in first position during the City of Lights Parade on Dec. 2.
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Gianna Brown and Arie YamasakiFebruary 7, 2024
Senior Marcus Morifuji faces off against senior Ava Mayfield in a game of chess. The Tabletop Gaming Club
hosted its first chess tournament on Nov. 30, any student was welcome to participate.
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Marcus Morifuji, Sports Editor • February 6, 2024

Kinard and Cramer move on from district science fair

By Karen Neill
[email protected]
(Photo courtesy of Andrew Pierson) Aside from overall and division winners, students had the opportunity to earn agency awards given by organizations who support their efforts in the field of science.
(Photo courtesy of Andrew Pierson) Aside from overall and division winners, students had the opportunity to earn agency awards given by organizations who support their efforts in the field of science.
On Feb. 22, students from intermediate and high school levels showcased their creative thinking and problem solving skills at the Central Oahu District Science and Engineering Fair. The six overall winners (from first to sixth) were Junior Brandon Kinard, Senior Tess Cramer, Junior Mason Lautzenheiser, Freshman Nathan Kim, Senior Jessica Montalbano and Junior Nathan Onaka.  

“A lot of students worked hard and it showed because they knew what they were talking about. When they explained their projects they were passionate, so to me that was a clear indicator that they worked on it,” said Science Fair Coordinator Nel Venzon.

Since 2011, schools have sent students directly to the International Science Engineering Fair (ISEF). In this case, Kinard and Cramer were the two chosen students to represent MHS at ISEF while other district finalists move on to the state fair.

Kinard’s project included creating algorithms in order for a wheelchair to detect obstacles and navigate effectively, to be used by the hearing impaired and quadriplegics, offering them more independence and mobility. “(The wheelchair) performed with very high accuracy, stopping at a majority of the situations or scenarios presented,” said Kinard, “I don’t know how many days I spent trying to figure out one of the algorithms to get this to work as effectively as it does.”

On the other hand, Cramer’s project dealt with isolating hydrocarbon metabolizing bacteria from oil-contaminated soil and water, a bacteria that can break up the bonds in oil in order to remediate it. “These bacteria are easy to find. It’s not a matter of abundance, but of quality. So when remediation specialists are looking to remediate these sites and they are trying to find the right bacteria, they need ones that can live in the environment. So if you are already taking it from the target environment, and you reintroduce it, it should be accustomed to all the temperatures and everything,” Cramer explained.

All students moving forward are making the necessary adjustments to ensure that their projects stand out. Lautzenheiser, who won third overall at MHS for his study on the effects of colors on memorization, found that reading text in warm colors such as red aids in memorization more than just reading black text. He will be moving on to the state competition, vying to be one of the five extras who get picked up for ISEF. “I plan on extending my experiment to learn more about long-term memory than just short-term memory and I plan on expressing my results in a better, more professional way,” Lautzenheiser said, “Since my project is relatively simple compared to others, I’ll have to do really good at the interviews.”

The Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair will be held at the Honolulu Convention Center on March 31 to April 2 and ISEF will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from May 11 to 16.

 

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