Powell continues to gather accolades

Continuing her Advanced Science Research (for-credit class of independent study in the sciences), Odessa High School student Kira Powell returns from Pittsburgh, Penn. and the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a fourth-place award in the Plant Sciences category.

Thousands of students from more than 50 different countries attended, 10 of the projects from Washington state alone. The competition was very demanding, and only one other project from Washington state made it to the grand award stage.

At one time, she told The Record, she contemplated moving on to an entirely different project for her senior-year project. But with all the time pressures involved in being a high school senior, it soon became apparent that further development of her work on sodium polyacrylate as a water reservoir for wheat seed would be preferable to starting something entirely new.

Her research journey began in 2010, when she made the connection between her local arid environment and kids dragging their expanded wet diapers from the swimming pool where she worked as a life guard during the summer. She was able to show that wheat planted along with sodium polyacrylate got higher yields.

This year’s project was entitled "The Development of a Novel Sodium Polyacrylate Seed Treatment." She engineered an adhesive to blend with the sodium polyacrylate, which could then be applied using modern machinery at a seed plant. It worked as predicted and at a very low cost to the farmer.

Powell was aware that her research would be criticized by judges, since she was unable to provide yield results (the planting season just did not coincide with the science season). "The judges do not want to hear that the seed is planted and looks promising – they want to see the final results," she says. The judges were nevertheless impressed with the chemical she had engineered, the method she used to test her research in the laboratory, the in-laboratory device she engineered to apply her treatment to the seed and with the fact that she currently has a small plot of experimental seed in the ground awaiting results. They were so impressed they asked her to take a bow one final time, honoring her for her outstanding science research.

“It continues to be refreshing that students like Kira, who persistently give their very best, are rewarded for their hard work," says her mentor and science teacher Jeff Wehr, "but it is also a testament to our research facility and methodology. When your methods and analyses are being critiqued by international scientists, some of whom have won Nobel Prizes in their respective scientific disciplines, and you end up with an international “Grand Award,” well, its nice to know we are doing things right.”

Although Powell's high school career is coming to an end, she is not hanging up her science notebook quite yet. "We visited with Greg Luiten on applying the treatment full scale next season, possibly up to 10 acres. That would be incredible."

This young scientist’s journey is just beginning. She has accepted an offer from the Colorado School of Mines, where she will continue her scientific adventure. It appears her experience at Odessa High School has set her on the path for success!