Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science junior Elsie Suhr won several awards at the Kansas State Science and Engineering Fair.
Suhr was awarded a certificate of outstanding achievement from the American Meteorological society, Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a participation award from the fair itself.
The awards came after Suhr won at the regional Science and Engineering Fair hosted by Fort Hays State University.
“Global climate change, a class I had to take last semester, was about research, and we had to do an advanced paper project for that class so I just carried over that project and changed it a little bit and used it for the regional science fair here,” Suhr said.
“And if you win a gold or silver metal here you have the opportunity to go to state. I was excited about it.”
Suhr’s project took an in-depth look into the change of humidity in Nemaha County and if it was causing cows to die.
“It was about the temperature humidity index and if it’s changed in Nemaha County over the past 30 years, specifically how it applies to dairy cattle.
“I just used data mining. Then I used the information that I gathered from the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”
Next year, Suhr will get the unique opportunity to work with a professor in looking at alternative ways of drying extruded grain product to be taken to third world countries. The research will be apart of the senior research project KAMS students are required to create.
“Well next year, for the senior research project that we have to do for KAMS, I’m going to be working with a professor from K-State. There’s an organization at my high school called Grain for Hope, and we make extruded rice product and send it to Mozambique and third world countries. But we want to be able to make their product in other countries so they can become self-sufficient. But after extruding you have to dry it, and the dryers are so expensive we can’t make it in country. So my research project will be about if there is a more efficient way of drying.”
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