Science Fair Awards - School Year 2005-2006
We all know about the importance of Light Pollution. Now it's also becoming a topic for students competing in the Southern Arizona Science Fair. Members of the Southern Arizona Section of the International Dark-Sky Association scoured the rows of over 1,400 projects at the fair, and found several dealing with Light Pollution and outdoor Lighting. Four excellent exhibits were found and cash prizes and gift certificates were awarded to each of these projects.
Click on any photo for a larger view...
Our First Place Award went to Carter, an
8th
grade student from Doolen Middle School. His “Light Pollution over Tucson and
How to Measure It”
project was very professional and detailed, measuring sky brightness using
several different sky brightness meters from
different areas in and around Tucson and comparing the results. Carter
used the same locations and data from last years science project and was able to
take many more readings with new instrumentation and make detailed comparisons
using several different types of sky brightness meters.
Our
Second Place Award went to Kaley, a 7th grade student at Tucson Hebrew Academy.
Her "Starlight Star Bright! How Many Foot Candles Do I Need To See At
Night" project was a study to see how low levels of light affected your vision.
Measurements were taken at 20 feet with different light intensities to measure
20/100, 20/80, 20/40, and 20/20 vision. She discovered that very low
levels of light were needed to be able to see reasonably well.
An
Honorable Mention Award went to Ygnacio, an 8th grade student at Wakefield
Middle School. His "Light Reflects" Project delt with testing different
materials to see how light reflects off of them. He used the sun as his
light source. Although this project didn't address light pollution
directly, reflection of light is a very important subject when dealing with
outdoor lighting sources as some of the light is often reflected upwards into
the sky from an outdoor light..
An
Honorable Mention Award went to Garrett, a 4th grade student at Coyote Trail
Elementary School. His "Which Color Is Safest At Night, Which Color Is
Safest" Project explored several colors of clothing to see which one is easiest
to see at night with different lighting levels. He found out that not only
white but yellow and pink are easy to see and yellow is the best.