6/13/2019, 7:46:42 AM
NOTE: On Thursday (June 20) between 1:30pm – 4:00pm, Team Microfiber Fighters will present their ‘mission’ to the judges. During that national showcase, a public broadcast is available online HERE. Please help to spread the word about this great opportunity and vote for the team for the People’s Choice Award. The Public may vote for the “Microfiber Fighters”, by clicking HERE. There’s also hashtags for anyone to post comments and encouragement by using #ecyber19 and #microfiberfighters
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – Rocky River Middle School students Sarah
Knox and Bode McDougal have teamed with a student from Bay Village to form the
Microfiber Fighters and help fight the problem of micro plastics in rivers and
Lake Erie.
The work and
experiment conducted by the Microfiber Fighters has led the group to be one of five
sixth grade teams throughout the
country selected to compete at the 17th Annual eCYBERMISSION
Competition. They will be competing for
the first-place national award in their grade
level at the National Judging and Educational event which runs from June
16-21 in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
The web-based science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM) program - sponsored by the U.S. Army and
administered by the National Science Teachers Association - is designed to cultivate
student interest in STEM by encouraging students in grades six through nine to
develop solutions to real-world problems in their local communities.
Knox and McDougal were sitting in RRMS Principal Megan Rose’s office on a conference call on May 9 when they were informed about their selection to the national competition by virtue of winning the Ohio State tournament and the North Central Region competition.
The Microfiber Fighters were one of three sixth grade teams to compete at the regional in late April. Regional Judging consisted of a four-minute presentation via video chat followed by a five-minute question and answer session with Regional Judges.
Each student
received a $2,000 savings bond for winning the regional tournament.
“We were so excited when we found out that we qualified for nationals,” McDougal said. “It will be exciting to get to the Navy training camp, visit some of the labs and conduct experiments.”
At the National
Judging event, all teams will present a four-minute verbal presentational
followed by a judge-led nine-minute question and answer session. Teams must
also deliver a four-minute presentational during the National Showcase.
To reach this
stage, national finalists had to
focus their projects on one of seven mission challenges affecting their community,
including alternative sources of energy, the environment, food, health and
fitness, force and motion, national security and safety, and robotics.
The Microfiber
Fighters focused their work on the environment, specifically finding readily available
household items that could be put in washing machines and remove the micro
plastics before they were discharged into our water systems and eventually,
Lake Erie.
“It’s a problem that many people don’t know about,” Knox said. “We want to help expose the issue and show people that there are materials available to address the issue.”
“We experimented with items that could be put into a washing machine and remove the micro plastics,” McDougal said. “We started with a whiffle ball and Velcro dots and tried a dog toy with hair curlers. Ultimately, we ended up putting a partially inflated balloon inside the wiffle ball and observed that a large number of plastic fibers stuck to the balloon.”
After running the experiment several times, the Microfiber Fighters
determined that a whiffle ball or dog toy with a partially inflated balloon
inside provided the best result.
“We think this is a reasonable solution that is not very expensive,” Knox said.
Knox and McDougal – who will be seventh graders at RRMS in the fall - both aspire to work as environmental engineers, marine biologists or other fields related to the environment.
They appear to be well on their way to reaching that goal.