For the third consecutive year, Amelie Chen of Pacific Horizons School has topped the High School Division of the American Samoa High School Science Fair. Her winning project in this year’s fair on technology, focused on optimizing maritime navigation by analyzing environmental factors to create time efficient routes.
Oceanographic data was plugged into the Hamilton Jacobi Bellman Partial Differential Equation to create Matlab simulations. Amelie conducted the research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, collaborating with professors and graduate students on path planning algorithms. After her summer at MIT, she was eager to bring the research back to American Samoa to path plan around the Pacific Islands. However, insufficient data made this infeasible, leading her to develop the second part of her project, constructing a remotely operated vehicle to collect data in American Samoa. She successfully built and tested a functioning ROV and began collecting oceanographic data, which she will incorporate into the path planning research she conducted at MIT.
Second place winner was Kim Gerald Garcia, an 11th grader at Faasao Marist High School. His botany project was evaluation of an in-vitro salt tolerance screening method for taro cultivars in terms of reliability and efficiency through comparison with ex-vitro methodology. The results of his study suggest in-vitro screenings as a reliable alternative to expedite efforts to maintain sustainability for coastline environments in American Samoa, and other salt-affected regions that rely on taro as a staple crop.
There was a tie for third place: Damin Pyo, a ninth grader at Manumalo Academy, and Sialevene Lutali, an 11th grader at Pacific Horizons School. Damin’s chemistry project looked at the production of recyclable adhesives using polystyrene, solvent and emulsifiers. The main goal of his project was to recycle non-biodegradable polystyrene by exploring methods to transform polystyrene into a sustainable alternative to commercial adhesives.
Sialevene ‘s project investigated the impact of tourism, particularly from cruise ships on the health of local communities , with a focus on American Samoa.
Through surveys conducted with Department of Health workers, data was collected on illness patterns during peak tourist seasons, health issues faced by locals and strategies to mitigate these problems. Key findings indicate an increase in respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses such as colds, flu and stomach-related issues during cruise ship arrivals. The study concludes that while tourism offers economic and cultural benefits it requires robust public health strategies to mitigate its negative effects.
The 4th and 5th place winners were Rachel Park and Christine Park of Manumalo Academy.
The top five winners will represent American Samoa at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus, Ohio, May 10-16.
