Students Win Awards at State Science Fair

Brent Shockley figures he had to explain it over and over again--at least a dozen times.

“It was really nerve-racking waiting the whole day,” said Brent, an eighth-grader at Chaminade Intermediate School in Chatsworth, who took first place in the Fluids and Aerodynamics category at the California Science Fair this week.

Brent, who lives in Northridge, was one of several students from the San Fernando Valley who came home winners after awards were given Tuesday night at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

This was the 44th year of the fair, sponsored by the California Museum of Science of Industry, and 850 students from around the state competed.

Other Valley winners included Joanna Huey of Northridge, a seventh-grader at Mirman School in Bel-Air, who took first place in the Earth and Planetary Science category, and Clark Thompson, a senior at Chaminade College Preparatory in West Hills, who took first place in Behavioral Science.

A special award also went to Steven Goldberg, a senior at Chaminade who won second place in the Mathematics and Software category. He was honored because he has been in five state fairs, while most students only attend one.

Sanaa Calabari of North Hollywood, a 12th-grader at the King-Drew medical magnet high school in Watts, was part of a team that won first place for team projects.

“At first, when I was building the project, I thought I’d be lucky to get to the state,” said Brent, 14, who dreams of being an aerospace engineer some day. “I didn’t think I’d get county.”

His project on lift and drag in airplane wings showed that a thinner wing foil is more efficient at higher speeds and a thicker wing foil is more efficient at lower speeds. When he sized up his competition at the state fair, he was more confident of his project, which was four feet long and about six inches high.

“There were a couple that were better than mine,” said Brent, who attends as many air shows as he can. The precise measurements he used in his experiment could have made the difference, he said.