Sacred Heart Catholic School

SALISBURY — Two Sacred Heart Catholic School students were named winners at the recent North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair. The competition hosted more than 350 projects from 10 counties.

“We are so proud to say that our students participate in our state’s science fair and are ecstatic to learn that we had two big winners,” said Hillary Shores, middle school science teacher at Sacred Heart. “Over the past few years, Sacred Heart has adopted the New Generation science standards, purchased new science curriculums, formed a fabulous relationship with the Leopold Society, and added new science enrichment and STREAM lessons into our daily lessons. Our students are loving it and now look at what they can do!”

At regionals this past weekend, Evan Miller was awarded the CMS STEM Award for excellence in elementary STEM research and work performed. His project was entitled “SMILE: Which whitening toothpaste works best?” He determined that Sensodyne toothpaste worked best!

Jacob Shores was presented with numerous awards for his entry entitled “Operation conservation: Using variable rate irrigation to conserve water in production agriculture.”

Jacob won the Broadcom Masters Award which is presented to the top 10 percent of projects at the junior level. This award nominates him as a semi-finalist with a chance to present his project to the Society of Science in Washington, D.C. in October 2018. There, he will compete against as many as 2,500 semi-finalists from 37 states, Puerto Rico and the Department of Defense overseas. 

In addition, Jacob won the Naval Science Award presented by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. This award was established to encourage the interest of middle and high school students in science and engineering, to reward their scientific achievements, and to encourage them to pursue careers in science and engineering.

Jacob also placed second overall for junior engineering, which qualifies him to compete at the state level at the 2018 North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair on March 23-24 at N.C. State University.

When asked why he chose this project, Jacob responded that he “had always liked building contraptions.”

“I liked this project because it involved engineering and agriculture,” he said. “Plus, I only needed a few simple materials — water, a glass measuring cup, styrofoam cups, clear plastic cups, straws, scissors, a ruler, and a lab notebook. I found out that it was possible to control the flow of water using different diameter straws. It was fun. The judges told me that my project was ‘simplistic, but very useful.'”

Sacred Heart Principal Tyler Kulp said he was extremely excited about the educational direction of Sacred Heart.

“Sacred Heart is committed to science, technology and our STREAM Curriculums, but this year our teachers are emphasizing engineering and problem-solving,” he said. “Our students’ minds are exploding with these lessons. Their young minds are brilliant when put in the right learning environment full of experimentation and exploration.”