Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
Two students from the 45th Annual Guam Islandwide Science Fair were selected to represent Guam at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Dallas, Texas, this year.
The Guam Daily Post spoke with one of the winners, eleventh grader Angel Payumo, from George Washington High School, who won second place in the competition. Her experiment was called “Understanding the Role of Coral Pigmentation in Response to Coral Bleaching.”
“I felt overjoyed when I received my award,” said Payumo. “It shows that hard work pays off and motivates me more for the upcoming International Science and Engineering Fair.”
She said along with winning comes pressure, which she feels stems from being the only one competing from her high school.
Although the pressure to win can be daunting, she said, it is exciting and an honor to represent not only her school but the University of Guam National Science Foundation Supporting Emerging Aquatic Scientists Islands Alliance Grant.
“As a student-athlete, I have the mindset to win no matter what. So, whether my pressure is through the roof, I’ll still have the confidence to win for the things I love,” said Payumo.
This is not the first science competition Payumo participated in. Before the Islandwide Science Fair, she garnered one of the top spots at another science symposium.
“Knowing that I had this advantage, I asked the Grant if I could improve my research for the science fair and they approved, which led my curiosity and love for my experiment to run wild,” she said enthusiastically.
Payumo’s project aimed to find a better way to improve coral restoration projects, where she focused on coral pigmentation and examined its reaction to warm water temperature, or coral bleaching.
She further explained that coral bleaching is an “issue which is the process of the coral expelling their primary food source, photosynthetic algae.”
“Naturally, dark-tone corals react better after a bleaching process with their color intensity and fast growth; genuine light-tone corals are more sensitive to heat stress, which causes a slow recovery after the thermal process. This research suggests that coral color morphology may be essential when designing restoration projects,” she said.
Payumo said she is interested in becoming either a marine biologist or professor here in Guam, or even exploring different science fields.
“This island is so beautiful and will continue to be fabulous once our environmental problems are solved,” she said.
She also hopes that her accomplishments and enthusiasm for STEM will inspire others to explore the science field, which she said has shown her incredible opportunities that will benefit the world overall.
“I want to encourage my peers to participate in these events, considering that the fair will offer the winning students scholarships, internships and other prizes. After all, colleges tend to look for science fair winners more than student-athletes,” she said.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
