2 Pinoy kids win grand prize in US science fair

MANILA, Philippines - Two Filipino grade school students in a middle school in the US won first place in the Toshiba-National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision, one of the world’s biggest science competitions.

Grade 6 pupils Richard Ira and Brian Niguidula of Scofield Magnet Middle School in Stamford, Connecticut won the grand prize in the national ExploraVison for their “Community Algae Bioreactor” science project.

Ira and Niguidula, in an interview with a local TV station in Connecticut, said they chose the project because “it was interesting and could benefit human kind.”

According to its website, ExploraVision is “designed for K–12 students of all interest, skill and ability levels. It encourages kids to create and explore a vision of future technology by combining their imaginations with the tools of science. All inventions and innovations result from creative thinking and problem solving.”

“We had chosen a topic that would help the world,” Ira said.

The two boys’ winning invention—the micro community algae bioreactor—actually collects oil from algae.   

Ira and Niguidula explained through the ExploraVision website that the “Community Algae Bioreactor (mCAB) is a miniature renewable energy processing unit that creates biofuels from algae while cleaning water and reducing carbon dioxide levels. The closed-system mCAB uses plastic tubes lined with nanosand to remove fast-growing, easily-harvested ‘super algae’ with a high and constant oil content from wastewater and then extracts oil from the algae for fuel production.”

For their prizes, Ira and Niguidula will receive a trip to ExploraVision’s headquarters in Washington D.C. on June 9 to 13 and a $10,000 bond each. They also get to hear some congratulatory videos from important personalities in the US, including US Senators.

ExploraVision winners are chosen according to their category: Grades 10-12, Grades 7-9, Grades 4-6 and Grades K-3. 

Since 1992, more than 245,000 students from across the United States and Canada have competed in ExploraVision. Executives of the search say “this is much more than a contest. ExploraVision can be the beginning of a lifelong adventure in science, as students develop higher-order thinking skills and learn to think about their role in the future.”