Sunnyvale Middle School sixth-grader Wyndia Ohm took home first prize honors for her Synopsis Science Fair project in March and as a result was given the opportunity to compete at the state level.
This year, the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association (SCVSEF) chose to sponsor six projects for the entire Junior Division (grades 6-8) in the Santa Clara County to go to the California Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF) in Los Angeles on April 24. Wyndia was one of these six!
Her parents shared their sincere thanks to Mr. Umberger for sponsoring her.
The inspiration for her project came from her family having a poor yield of squashes last summer due to lack of bees. The family had to resort to hand pollination.
Wyndia conducted research and learned that in China 100% of apples are hand pollinated as a result of the declining bee population. She felt there must be a better way to hand pollinate. So, her objective was to design a pollinator that would be more efficient, less injury prone and easy to use.
She kept improving her design through several iterations. She ended up producing a working prototype all by herself.
This year there were 934 participants from 397 schools throughout the State who presented 795 projects underneath the retired Space Shuttle Endeavor.
In her words: “I was happy that my hard work paid off. I am glad to go to L.A. I would like to see Space Shuttle Endeavour again after five years.”
