Earlier this month, the campuses of the Pioneer Charter School of Science (PCSS) in Everett (PCSSI) and Saugus (PCSS2) hosted the 16th Annual Science and Engineering Fair. This year’s theme was “Reimagining Your Daily Life,” a concept celebrated by nearly 300 student participants.
All of PCSS’ 6-12th grade students participated in a preliminary event in December, and then students were selected to participate in the fair. Judges for the fair were recruited from the STEM community in the Boston area, including MIT, MIT Lincoln Labs, New England Biolabs, Omega Pharmaceuticals, BU and Northeastern.
Each year the Fair aims to allow students to use the scientific method or engineering design process to investigate a question or problem that interests them outside the general class curriculum. This also serves as a method for students to complete an independent research project as part of the PCSS college readiness program and assists students in developing the necessary skills in verbal and written scientific communication.
The mission of PCSS is to prepare educationally under-resourced students for today’s competitive world. PCSS helps students develop the academic and social skills necessary to become successful professionals and exemplary community members through a rigorous academic curriculum emphasizing math and science. Balanced by a foundation in the humanities, a character education program, career-oriented college preparation and strong student-teacher-parent collaboration, PCSS will meet its mission.
PCSSI’s 7th graders Altamash, Ajah (left) and Anthony (right) of Revere engineered a train that operates via a magnetic field to explore eco-friendly mass transportation alternatives.PCSS2 11th graders Shresth (left) from Lynn and Devlin (right) from Malden created a robot that traverses tight spaces to reduce human casualties in mining accidents and cave rescues. The robot navigates tight spaces using ultrasonic detectors and successfully navigated cramped areas in trials.PCSSI 10th grader Moses from Everett is trying to create an autonomous, cost-effective device to help clean our oceans. He designed his prototype using a pendulum-based rotating mass wave energy converter and tested it in local waterways.PCSSI 12th graders Mehak (left) and Nikicha (right) from Everett are interested in helping people identify if they are anemic. They created a symptom-checker app that helps users determine if they might be experiencing anemia and tested the app using public databases.PCSSI 8th grader Lucas from Revere is creating cleaner air by creating a device that targets particulate air pollution. A fan moves air over a sticky surface to trap even tiny particulates, thus cleaning the air. Tests showed that the device successfully trapped particles, improving local air quality.PCSSI 10th graders Kristina (left) from Revere and Gabriela (right) from Chelsea are exploring chemical engineering to find an environmentally friendly, cost-effective strategy to clean up crude oil spills. They used a series of chemical reactions to alter the properties of cotton to make it repel water and attract and retain oil.PCSS2 8th graders Grace from Saugus (left), Lianna from Everett (right) and Yurie from Chelsea (not pictured) are trying to solve the problem of single-use plastic waste from water bottles by creating a solar water distillation system to provide safe drinking water when none is otherwise available.
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