The 38th LCPS Regional Science and Engineering Fair took place on Thursday, March 14, at Riverside High School. The science fair includes 275 LCPS students chosen by their respective schools to compete. The purpose of the RSEF is to encourage students to study and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which is more commonly known as STEM. At this event they also come  to present their findings. The fair gives students an ample opportunity to present their finding to major corporations. 24 students from Dominion competed in the fair with several winning awards. The winners from Dominion included Senior, Camryn Mills who won first place in the plant category and Junior, Sejal Ahluwalia won first place in the biomedical engineering category.

Mills described what her project was, she said, “I coated corn seed with silica to test its effects on germination and early growth.” She also said, “I was very excited to see that my hard work and effort in my independent science research class had paid off.”

Mrs. Wingfield is the teacher of the Independent Science Research class, or ISR, where she mentors and helps students develop their projects. “The students choose what they wish to research and they do all of the work. The only way I help the students is in the development of their project,” Wingfield said “The kids had a great time and they did really well. Camryn Mills won first place in the plant category and we won numerous special awards which came with monetary recognition and the opportunity for some students to present their research to major corporations.”

Many students that participated in the fair won special awards for their projects. One of the students is Senior, Maddie Ferris. She won an award from the Society of Science and the Public and the USPHS Distinguishing and Meritorious Achievement in Medicine and Public Health award. “My project was measuring the connection between distance and someone’s likeness to interact with suicidal content on twitter,” Ferris said. Other recipients of special awards were Senior, Paige Thimmesch won the Society for Science and the Public Young Scientist Award. Senior, James Li won the Robert H. Herndon Aerospace Corporation Honorable Mention Award. Senior, Juhee Jain won the Loudoun County Office of Mapping and Geographic Information Spatial Analysis Award. Senior, Katriel Simpson won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Technology Acceptance Award. Senior, Whitney Swain won the IT Cadre Innovation award.