Martinez lights up science fair

Apr. 12—University of Texas Permian Basin STEM Academy senior Natalie Martinez was one of several Odessa winners of the Permian Basin Science and Engineering Fair and recently competed in the Texas Science & Engineering Fair in College Station.

Her project was to see how bright discharge tubes could get, measure their brightness and determine if that brightness could fit the theory of calculating brightness, Martinez said.

A discharge tube is a long tube that contains an element inside of it like Krypton or mercury, she said.

"Once it has an electric charge, it illuminates a certain color and that color associates with the element. I wanted to see how bright that could get and I built my own sensor. I made the program for it and that sensor was going to calculate brightness for me," Martinez said.

Hydrogen turned out to be the brightest element.

"That may be because of the other tubes that I have tried were just old, or the element itself is not bright. Hydrogen produces a very bright pinkish-purple color. It's very beautiful. ...," Martinez said.

She added that her project was based around graphing the data.

"When these elemental tubes were graphed, they were supposed to fit more of an exponential line. I think this one did produce an exponential line, but some of them produced power functions. Some of them were polynomial functions, and they were mostly supposed to be either linear or exponential. Seeing different varieties of lines was interesting for that project," Martinez said.

Polynomial is just the way the line curves, she said.

Martinez didn't know Friday how she. Had done in the state fair and doesn't know if she'll be going to the International Science and Engineering Fair.

For the regional fair, participants presented for about five minutes. "We couldn't show our faces. It was just talking about our project, and we would submit it to the website that they had provided for us. Then they'd say, OK, once this has been reviewed, we'll let you know ... what happens," Martinez said.

Once she got the email saying she was elected to be in the state fair, they told her she placed second in regionals. "They had another system through Texas A&M," she said.

She had to set up another account and submit another three-minute video briefly going over her project.

Martinez was pleased with how she did at the regional fair.

"I've always excelled in science, whether it's been biology or chemistry. I've always enjoyed doing some kind of science. So now that I'm an intern for a physics professor at UTPB, (Doug Young), I have a lot more access to a lot of the other different sciences, science experiments that I can work on. So I was really thrilled about that," she said.

Martinez said her internship with Young has been fun. She's been able to test things out for him and offer second opinions.

Although she's been involved in physics, Martinez said she plans to major in nursing at UTPB.

STEM Academy Principal Cody Griffin said Martinez got to walk through the College of Health Sciences and Human Performance with Dean Donna Beuk. The college is housed in the D. Kirk Edwards Family Human Performance Center.

Griffin said the science fair takes a lot of practice in setting up experiments that are going to catch the judges' attention and show scientific thought and process. He said that's something the school has worked on with students since the beginning.

Karey Grametbaur, science fair sponsor and Project Lead the Way teacher, was amazed at Martinez's initiative.

"Her project was top notch and very upper level. When you get to a certain point in high school, my expertise doesn't go up that high, for sure, so it is so nice to have professors, especially that have their areas of expertise, that can work with these kiddos. And it was super nice to not have to even mention to her a deadline. I mean ... she always had it exactly when she needed to and it's great to have kids like that. We're going to miss her," Grametbaur said.

"Maybe she can help me mentor some of my kiddos on the science fair," Grametbaur said.

She added that STEM's partnerships with UTPB with its professors have been amazing. "They're willing to help all that they can," Grametbaur said.

"I think those professors have just really stepped up because we've also got kids interning in the nursing lab, working with the professors up there, and we've got a couple other professors that have interns. They've just really done a phenomenal job for us," Griffin added.

On a related note, because the regional science fair was virtual this year it was more expensive to put on.

"The reason for the additional expenses was because we had to acquire the software for the judging platform and develop/program new sites and, etc. that helped with the entries. Typically it is all done on paperwork or just normal entries via a page online we developed. It was higher in costs because of those reasons and the fact that it was all new set-ups," said Jessica Raymond, administrative assistant I, in the Science and Math Department and assistant director/program coordinator of the Permian Basin Science and Engineering Fair.

"There is no deadline to contribute as the fair is now over and we can always post online a thanks to them or who the sponsors where if they wish to be acknowledged. We can always use any amount as it stays in the accounts to be used for future fairs. The link to contribute is https://www.utpb.edu/university-offices/advancement/donate-to-ut-permian-basin ...," Raymond added in an email.