BATON ROUGE – Two Kenilworth Science and Technology School students have been selected to participate in an international science fair in Brazil, marking the third consecutive year students from the school have been invited to an international competition.
Queasia Stafford and Andrew Knott will participate in the 2015 Mostratec Brazilian Science and Technology Fair in October. The fair takes place in Novo Hamburgo, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Stafford and Knott, both eighth graders at Kenilworth, were selected on the strengths of their individual projects. Stafford’s project examines whether fluorogypsum, a byproduct of hydrofluoric acid production, may be a better product to use than limestone in building coastal protection structures. Her project, which she developed last spring, was recently recognized by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality with a Pollution Prevention award.
Knott’s project studies which geometric pattern of cell phone towers gives full cell coverage while deploying the fewest number of towers (answer: a hexagon). His project also theorizes that bees build their bee hive cells in hexagons because of the shape's inherent efficiency.
The 2015 Mostratec Brazilian Science and Technology Fair will feature 376 projects from 750 students representing 21 countries. Stafford and Knott are two of only five students from the United States who were selected to participate. The fair is from October 26 – 30, 2015.
This is the third consecutive year a Kenilworth student has been invited to participate in an international science fair. Last school year, Ashton Fox won a bronze medal at the International Environment Sustainability Project Olympiad (INESPO) in The Netherlands. Before that, Jalen Scott won the Grand Award at an international fair in Kenya.
Kenilworth is asking interested companies or individuals to consider sponsoring the students and one of their respective parents to cover travel and lodging expenses, which are expected to total about $1,500 per person. Anyone interested in making a donation to help the families of Stafford and Knott with expenses should contact the school at info@kenilworthst.org.
Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter School is a state-sanctioned charter school with an academic focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. Formerly a part of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, Kenilworth has demonstrated consistent academic growth since its conversion to a charter school in 2009.
