Flowers and STEM
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Kaylin McLiverty, a sophomore at Navajo Preparatory School, poses for a photograph at the Navajo Nation Science Fair last Thursday. Her project was titled, “Diabetes Biomarker Study on the Navajo Nation.”
Overall winners for Navajo Nation Science Fair are both girls
CHURCH ROCK, N.M.
She is only an eighth-grader but she is already using her scientific mind to help her community.
SLIDESHOW: Scenes from the science fair
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Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Alesia Nez, sophomore at Navajo Preparatory High School, stands by her science fair project titled, “Solar Water Heater” at the Navajo Nation Science Fair in Church Rock, N.M.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Aaliyah Dooline from Ganado Intermediate School holds a crate full of firewood next to her science fair board at the Navajo Nation Science Fair on Feb. 28 in Church Rock, N.M. She researched which type of local firewood burns the longest.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Lucas Edgewater demonstrates how a hydro-powered turbine produces more energy than a wind-powered turbine for his science fair project last Thursday at the Navajo Nation Science Fair in Church Rock, N.M. Edgewater is a freshman at Ganado High School.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Tséhootsooí Diné Bi’ólta’ sixth-grader Jade Foster places her science board back on the table after lunch during the Navajo Nation Science Fair last Wednesday.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Alyssa Charley was the overall grand champion for the high school (9th -12th grade) division at the Navajo Nation Science Fair last Thursday at Church Rock, N.M.
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie Sixth-grader Kirsten Honahni from Tuba City Boarding School was named the overall grand champion winner for this year’s Navajo Nation Science Fair elementary division on Feb. 28.
“I want people to know how clean their water is,” said Shelby Arviso, from St. Bonaventure Indian School, on her science fair project. Shelby’s project was titled “Tó be’ Iiná” or “Water gives life.” The goal of it was to discover which was the most effective way of purifying water.
The 14-year-old scientist was inspired to do the project for her community of Thoreau, New Mexico. “My main reason for doing this project was to get people aware of their (home’s) quality of water and what’s the best way to clean it,” Arviso said.
Her project won her first place in the environment science category and overall grand champion for the junior high division at the Navajo Nation Science Fair held at Red Rock State Park last week. “There’s so many people on the reservation who have to haul their water,” she said, “and that’s not the best way of life.”
For her project she used three different types of water – tap water from Thoreau, pre-filtered water and bottled water. She tested those for water quality and found, to her surprise, that the tap water had the best quality — a finding that went against her hypothesis. She thought the bottled water would be the purest. Then, she purified each water sample using three different techniques – boiling it, using a Brita water filter system and a homemade gravity filter.
Her hypothesis here was also proven false. She thought the Brita water filter system would be the best at purifying the water. “Boiling it was the most efficient way of cleaning it,” Shelby said.
Her experiment is now headed to the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair on March 22.
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