Fourteen-year-old Kate Strube has been selected among 40
national finalists in the Discovery Channel's Young Scientists
Challenge. She's come a long ways from the days in elementary
school when one of her experiments was with "fruit batteries."
Her 8th grade science fair project that put her in this
year's national finals was much more complicated. It tested
the effects of temperature on both inputs and outputs of
chemical fuel cells.
Kate is now a 9th grader at Kirkwood High School. She and
her dad, Michael, went to Washington late last month. In
addition to competing, finalists were filmed for an hour-long
Discovery Channel program, to be aired next February.
She said, "I started doing science projects when I was
in first grade. We did a team experiment on balloon rockets."
Her first solo project was in 2nd grade when she built
"fruit batteries." That involved putting probes into common
fruits such as apples and lemons. She was testing to see
if they could make electricity.
"I did one experiment that linked a number of fruits in
an electrical series. I got enough power to run a pocket
calculator for a week," she said.
However, in recent years, Kate said her science projects
have involved tests of alternative fuel sources. She's done
experiments concerning getting power from ocean tides, the
sun, wind and water.
"We need to reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels,"
she said.
Kate credits her continuing interest in science to her
dad's development of a new home hobby. Her dad, Michael,
teaches statistics at Washington University.
"After I was in first grade, he started his hobby of building
electronic devices," she said.
One of his more spectacular devices was a homemade "Tesla
coil" that allows for building up very high voltage within
a small device. The magnifying coil is named after the scientist
Nikola Tesla, a noted scientist who did extensive work with
electricity.
Once the release of the electricity is triggered, it creates
a big bang and a spectacular electrical arc. "I didn't burn
anything but the neighbors heard the bang," he said.
Kate said her dad was "always there to advise me" with
her science projects.
She was nominated for the Discovery Channel's competition
after being a winner in the Missouri science fair competition.
A total of 2,000 young scientists were selected by the Discovery
Channel.
This number first was cut to 400 semi-finalists. The number
was reduced to the final 40.
The finalists were invited to Washington to compete for
scholarship prizes. The 1st place winner gets a $20,000
award. The competition was open to 6th, 7th and 8th grade
kids.
(On Challenge, visit http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/dysc/)
Kate's winning project actually was a two-part experiment.
She was measuring the effect of water temperature during
both the input and output phases of fuel cell development.
First, she varied the water temperature during electrolysis
to divide the water into oxygen and hydrogen. Then, she
also measured temperatures when the oxygen and hydrogen
are recombined to produce electricity.
Successful development of fuel cells for automobiles is
considered to be one way to reduce the world's dependence
on oil products.
Kate said, "Development of fuel cells for cars will be
difficult."
Her experiment looked at one of the factors, the ideal
temperature for maximum input and output of energy. "Manipulating
temperature in a fuel cell is hard," she said.
Because of her consistent winning in science project competition,
she has been called to speak at the St. Louis Science Center.
"I talked to other kids about my interests in science,"
she said.
Obviously, when asked about her favorite subject in school,
she said, "Science."
This year, one of the science subjects has been "force
and motion." She said the kids are measuring the force generated
when toy cars go down varying degrees of slopes.
Kate said she's already considering what to study for the
2007-08 science fair competition. She said she might study
some other aspect of fuel cell development.
She said she'd like to go to Washington University. But,
she's looking at a career that would combine her interest
in science with photojournalism.
"I'd like to be a photographer for National Geographic,"
she said.
