1st Place, News Story
2024-25, Division MS, News Writing
By Ishan Kumbar
Crane
Cranbrook Kingswood Boys MS
He was rejoicing, realizing that his hard work had finally paid off, and that
he’d finally gotten first place.
“I was happy, because I saw a few that were really
good, and I didn’t expect myself to do very well. I expected myself to get like
second or third at most, but first was really good, so I was very happy,” said
Michael Chen’29.
Over Spring Break, Chen participated in the Science and Engineering Fair of
Metro Detroit.
“It is called the science and engineering fair of metro Detroit.
Elementary, middle, and high schoolers have the chance to show their research
and capability. They have a good chance to research great ideas and anything
new. You can bring your brilliant ideas and show how to implement and test
them and prove it works or doesn’t work. It’s good practice for
young kids to gain research,” said Yan Jin, Chen’s mother.
Chen decided to enter the competition because his sister entered
the competition for the high school, and both Chen and his mother
decided to enter Michael into the middle school competition to
learn something new, and they weren’t really expecting an award to
come along with it.
“I was very surprised. I didn’t expect anything or
any results. For me, it was just a good opportunity to learn, and I didn’t expect
any awards.”
But what was the project that led Michael to win?
“My sister bought a lot of bottles because she kept switching from the one she was using, so I thought, ‘Okay, since she’s doing it, I might do it too.’ So, I took all the insulation bottles, and we had boiling water, and we would pour like all like the maximum amount
in each cup and then and we would see which one could hold the water the best and for the longest,” said Chen. “We also have a graph that we got from a spreadsheet where all the data was. We did that experiment to see which one could hold water for the longest, like the hot water’s heat. Then we also did ice water. We poured a bunch of ice cubes in and then saw which one [bottle] kept the temperature like coldest with these temperature recorders. Then we would use an eye dropper to take out all the water there was and then we would also measure which one would have the most water in it which one left out the most water after melting. Then we would put them [the data] into the graph and the spreadsheet and every few hours or so, I would test each one to see
what has changed and put it in the graph.”
Looking back on the reasons for why Michael won, Mrs. Rebecca Hattner, 7th
grade science teacher, said, “His display board was very nicely done, and his
graphs were all very clear. He just presented his information very well and his
investigation was done nicely and set up nicely, and his documentation was good, which I think was recognized by the judges.
Besides the award, the project was a great educational experience
also. “A big part of the project was creativity and trying to figure out
how to use only the stuff we had at home and then to finish the project only with the things we had,” said Jin. “It was a very interesting
experience. We also learned how to organize and develop the procedure and steps, and then do a lot of measurements. It was also practice for his
commitment because he had to do the measurements every hour for a few
days. And when he developed the presentation, it was also good practice to
organize and to make your idea on paper.”
Moving on from this competition, Chen has qualified for the Thermo Fisher
Scientific Junior Innovators competition. Finalists of the competition will be
announced on September 18th. “He qualified for the Fisher Scientific which is a
big company that sells scientific equipment,” said Hattner. “He qualified for
their competition which is a national level competition, so hopefully good results come from that as well.”