Science fair shines a light on student talent

The Navajo Nation Science Fair showcases the next generation scientists, engineers and inventors from around the reservation, and this year's event featured over 400 of them.

The three-day fair, held in the Diné Education Center auditorium, started March 1 and closed March 3.

Among the K-4 winners was Konaa Tallman, 9, a fourth grader from Tséhootsooí Diné Bi Oltá in Fort Defiance.

Using PVC pipe, cardboard, duct tape and a small turbine engine, he built a miniature wind turbine and tested different propeller designs to determine which would generate the most energy.

"My hypothesis was the longer and bigger, the more power because it has more surface," Tallman said. "I was wrong."

He found out that weight was an important factor in how well they would spin. He tried three- and four-blade configurations, and also tried single- and double-point blades.

Through trial and error, Tallman learned that a three-blade propeller, using double-point blades, was the most efficient and could generate as much as 1.13 amps of power.

"I want to make some more of them. Then I could make electricity," he said, grinning. "I could recharge my batteries."

He placed first in the engineering category and second overall in his division.

The K-4 projects were judged on day 1 and, sadly, most were taken down by their owners immediately afterward. The same thing occurred on day 2, when grades five and six were judged. By day 3, when the 7-12 projects were judged, there was little left for a visitor to see.

The event was presented by the Office of Diné Science, Math and Technology, part of the Department of Diné Education.

This year's fair attracted nearly 430 projects from 28 schools, according to DODE, but a few schools dominated the competition and had multiple prizewinners. Tséhootsooí Diné Bi Oltá took home about a dozen ribbons in the K-4 and 5-6 divisions, followed by Window Rock Elementary School. Shiprock's 'Atsá Biyáázh Community School and Tuba City Boarding School also had multiple winners.

The competition is open to home-schooled and non-Navajo students as well, provided they reside on the Navajo Reservation.

The top five overall winners in each division received prizes, said Emerald Dahozy, DODE spokesperson.

K-4 winners received Leapfrog consoles, 5-6 winners got iPod Nanos, and 7-12 winners got iPads.

Students started arriving before 9 a.m. on day 1 of the fair. Some lined up after exiting their school bus, holding their projects. Other schools let the teachers carry the projects.

Navajo Nation Superintendent of Education Andrew Tah browsed the exhibits, absorbing the students' high spirits.

"They are all a little excited," he said with a smile.

Tah noted that the science fair helps students realize some of their potential, and said he wants to offer more science programs including some that run through the summer.

With math and science accounting for most of the best-paying jobs in years to come, Tah said, "we need to capture as many opportunities as we can" to ensure that young Navajos develop their potential in those areas.

Exhibit tables were set up in rows and covered with colored paper.

Autumn Yazzie and Nicole Nahkai, fourth-graders at 'Atsá Biyáázh Community School in Shiprock, entered a project together. They compared the Navajo constellations and those of the zodiac devised by the ancient Greeks.

Their booth stood out among the exhibits. Taller than most, its top was black to mimic the night sky, and they outlined Navajo star constellations with their names in Navajo and English.

"We were curious about the Navajo constellations," Nahkai said.

"... And the zodiac," Yazzie chimed in, finishing her friend's sentence.

"We found out that they are mostly the same," she added.

To give their exhibit cultural context, they built a small hogan outline with the four sacred mountains in their respective direction and color.

The pair talked about how the Milky Way was created when Coyote dragged the stars with a blanket and those that fell out formed the Milky Way.

They entered the science fair as a team, but unlike last year, there wasn't a team division, so team projects were grouped with the others.

Elise Benally, 8, a third-grader at Window Rock Elementary School, called her project "Swimming Raisins" and showed the results of putting raisins in different liquids.

She admits that her mom helped her, but said she did the research herself, using the Internet.

Karen Benally said she guided her daughter through the research but left the learning to her.

"I'm proud that she participated and that she learned about chemical properties," she added.

The second day of the competition was reserved for the fifth and sixth grade division in which 138 students who participated.

Aliah Hicks, 11, sat before her project wearing in traditional Navajo attire. She had investigated which would stain teeth faster, tea or dark-roasted coffee.

The experiment was inspired by watching her grandmother drink coffee every morning.

"I wondered what it did to you and how if it stains your teeth," she said.

In place of teeth, the Tséhootsooí Diné Bi Oltá sixth-grader used boiled eggs and soaked them in tea or coffee. Despite coffee's murky appearance, tea was quicker to stain the eggs.

"I was shocked," said Hicks, who placed first in the medicine and health sciences category, and first overall in her division.

Nathan Shirley and Justin Dedman, both fifth-graders at Sawmill Elementary School in Sawmill, Ariz., learned a lesson in engineering from their project.

They set out to build a "Shiprock Bridge" - Shirley's term for a suspension bridge. Using seven boxes of toothpicks, they constructed the bridge over a period of two weeks.

Then they started putting books on it to test its strength. The target number was 20 books, but they quickly surpassed that. They kept piling on books, eventually stopping at 46.

"It was falling over," Shirley said of the book stack. But the bridge held, he added.

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