MOUNT DORA, Fla. — At age 13, most kids in school are still trying to hone their skills in reading, writing and, arithmetic. But three Mount Dora students have their goals set a little higher.
They're out to improve the world.
- 3 Mount Dora girls win awards at science fair competition
- Claire placed first in the environmental engineering category
- Erica, Sarai tested Wi-Fi signals to see what would block transmissions
Erica Finol, Sarai Diaz, and Claire Classon recently won awards at a science fair competition in Lake County. More than 250 projects were submitted, so the competition was fierce.
“They're doing the work of a real scientist. They're thinking of a question and figuring out how to answer that question through an experiment,” said Fawn Stam, a teacher at Montessori at Roseborough.
Claire placed first in the environmental engineering category. She discovered how to turn rotten garbage and rain water into what she calls “compost tea.”
“A lot of people use artificial fertilizers and pesticides. I wanted to find a way where it wouldn't harm the earth, and it would be good for your plants,” she said.
Erica and Sarai tested Wi-Fi signals to see what materials would block the transmissions.
They used three materials — glass, wood, and metal.
“We found the slowest download speed in megabytes per second was the tin foil,” Sarai said.
Claire’s idea not only took first place, but she also moves on to the state competition and possibly to the nationals. But all three go home winners, and at age 13, the sky's the limit!
The state's science fair starts next week.