The campus science fair was held in the library on Jan. 10. Students were evaluated by college students from UTEP, who were judging the science fair for part of the MPL. These are experienced students who want to be in the medical field.

“You will be able to see projects that are good, and you can tell that they worked hard on them,” said science teacher and science fair director Cindy Apodaca. “A lot of the students have put a lot of time, effort, and have really thought outside of the box. Some are continuing projects that they worked on last year.”

Seniors Annai Cuveiler and Alexa Hernandez’s project, Hydrophobic Windshield, was about which fiber hydrophobic coating would work best on a piece of glass to make it extremely hydrophobic.

“The whole purpose of our project was to eliminate wipers all together because there’s a lot of accidents that are weather related in the United States,” Cuvelier said.

This is not the first time these two girls have won in a science fair. Last year, their hard work got them to the international science fair. Which, is a goal that these two wish to accomplish once more this year.

“We’re proud, but we know that we still have some work to do so that we can improve our project to advance to International Science,” Hernandez said.

Senior Carolina Ortega’s first-place project consisted of acid confinement. In her project, Ortega had two different solutions. One was a basic vinegar and water mixture, and the other was acidic. Ortega wanted to see how much of the basic solution it would take to refine the acidic solution. This project was a continuation of last year’s project, which did not work out for Ortega. The purpose behind her project was to provide third-world countries with a way to access clean water.

“We actually spent a lot of time doing this project,” Ortega said. “So I feel like we deserved it, and it’s more useful for the real world.”

Senior Eddie Gutierrez, another first-place winner, entered his project based on the physics behind the electric guitar. Gutierrez wanted to find the patterns that different strings make depending on the type of material they were made of. He also wanted to figure out how different materials affected the pitch and vibration of the guitar.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Gutierrez said. “This is my first time winning first place.”

First and second-place winners qualified for the district science fair, which was held Saturday, Feb. 2 at Pebble Hills High School.

At the district science fair, several Aztecs placed first or second in their category and will be progressing to the regional Sun Country Regional Science and Engineering Fair on March 2. Those students are:

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