Episcopal Day Students Place 1st and 2nd in County STEM Fair

Episcopal Day had an incredible turnout at this year's Science Fair. 

There were many highlights including Lucy's gardening experiment, Tyler's baseball bat tests, Vivian's book bindings, Atticus' electrolysis demonstration, a hefty potato cannon that launched things across Mustang Meadow, and much more!

From all of these superb demonstrations, six students were chosen for interviews by the San Mateo County Office of Education. These students included 6th graders Emily Desrosiers, Ella Horn, Quinn Rodgers, and Jackey Lange, and 7th graders Sidney Hsiao and Liam Stemmle.

After being reviewed by the San Mateo County Office of Education's Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Fair, Jackelyn Lange (6th grade) earned 2nd place, and Liam Stemmle (7th grade) was awarded 1st place. 

Jackelyn’s project “Canvies: Canor vs. Cacophony” explored if different types of music affect guinea pig behavior. Liam’s project “Masked Faces” set out to identify if wearing face masks inhibit our ability to perceive emotions. Jackelyn found that guinea pigs prefer classical and rock music in comparison to pop, while Liam was surprised to find that students were able to identify emotions on masked faces, although not quite as well as unmasked faces.

“We want to celebrate our amazing county representatives, as well as many others who created amazing projects for our Science Fair this year,” shared science teachers Mr. Langenberg and Mr. Farrington.

Since this achievement, Liam Stemmle has been nominated for the 2022 Broadcom MASTERS® (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars), a program of Society for Science this March 2022. This came as a huge honor and incredible achievement as only 10% of middle school project submissions nationwide are invited to apply for the competition.

Liam will apply for the program in mid-June and is hopeful to share his science project in the competition. Over the summer, the top 300 MASTERS will be identified, and 30 finalists will be selected to compete in the finals in October 2022. 

The Episcopal Day family wishes Liam the best of luck, and a huge congratulations to all 2022 Science Fair participants. Go Mustangs!