The Awakeri Science Fair produced some excellent projects, including one from a student who designed a pedestrian level-crossing warning mechanism to improve safety in urban areas.

Maddyn Assink is a big fan of trains but was shocked to hear 148 pedestrians had been hit by locomotives in New Zealand over the past 12 years.

His solution – a prototype crossing warning sign – formed the basis of his winning “Caution – Look Up” science fair project.

The contraption is essentially a step that is activated if a person stands on it; it vibrates and lights up bright red if trains are passing through.

It is designed so that even if a pedestrian is looking down at their phone, they will notice the warning.

Maddyn tested multiple concepts and settled on this design as the most effective because it activated the most senses in a person.

The methodology, design and thought put into the project impressed the science fair judges, including lead judge Will Rouse from Fonterra and EastPack’s Alan Davidson.

This is not Maddyn’s first scientific success; he won last year’s science fair with his ice melting experiments to see how surface area and shape effected melting times. He took last year’s project to the NIWA Bay of Plenty Science Fair in Rotorua.

He said he designed the warning system to fit in with the existing Auckland Transport train system.

“This prototype needs to be activated manually, but it would be activated when a train is coming,” he said.

Maddyn took first place in the technology category.

Mr Davidson said Awakeri students had done an “outstanding job” with their projects for yet another year.

The perfect barrel material to achieve max potato-gun velocity, sustainable clothing, the fastest-growing grass, the best fishing bait, human germs versus dog germs and dissolving eggs, and aniridia were all investigated.

First place in the science category went to Macintyre Humphries, who tested whether walking or running in the rain would make you more or less wet with her project Race or Pace by measuring the amount of water on clothing.

She first started testing her hypothesis in the rain, but as the weather improved, she had to get creative.

With her dad’s help, she set up a soaker hose on a kiwi fruit structure and tested walking, running and jogging.

“My poppa was suggesting ideas, and I thought this would be really fun to find out, and it would be fun to try and prove the teachers wrong,” she said.

It turned out the teachers were wrong, and sprinting meant you were hit by fewer raindrops.

“You might be safer jogging though. There’s not much difference between that and running, and you might slip over if you go too fast.”  

Jude Sweeney received a highly commended award after he held a War of the Water Bottles to determine the best brand and material of water bottle to keep a drink cool for the longest period of time.

“I judged from the cheapest to the most expensive,” he said.

Water bottles used in the experiment were purchased with a combination of his own money and his mum’s airpoints.

“Expensive brands such as Frank Green and Stanley Cups were actually pretty mediocre,” Jude said.

He suspects this is due to a small gap in the seal keeping the drinks temperature cool between the bottle and lid.

“They’re not as sealed. Kathmandu had the best one – they have more sealing. They were $29 on sale but $45 normally,” he said.

Sophia Power created a range of scented lip balms to discover the perfect recipe.

She had people testing her balms, which used ingredients such as grapefruit, lavender, lemon and teatree to generate scent.

“The best one was Recipe 3: lemon. I put lemon in a lot of the recipes, I just really like citrus flavours,” she said.  

She tested for preferred scent, flavour and texture, and made samples of the winning lip balm for judges to try.

She said she was potentially planning to make more to sell.

Science Fair results

■ Technology
1st place – Maddyn Assink – Caution Look Up
2nd place – Tanner Willetts – Surf Buddy
3rd place – Eleanor James – Get Lost
Highly commended – Asher Spalding – Hot Water Bottle Filling Station
Commended – Evy O’Brien & Madison O’Brien – Wash Off!

■ Science
1st place – Macintyre Humphries – Race or Pace?
2nd place – Braden Thomas – PSI – Performance, Speed & Investigation
3rd place – Miller Spence – Keeping it Cool
Highly commended – Lacey Hennessy McKay & Ava Whitewood – Good apples, Bad apples
Highly commended – Jude Sweeney – War of the Water Bottles
Commended – Danielle Duncan – Aniridia
Commended – Siobhan Watkins – How do you like your eggs?
Commended – Harvey Fergusson – Misbehaving Mould
Commended – Kyan Krause – Plant Talk
Judges award – Paige Cashell – A bright idea
Judges award – Tui Hunt – Copper and Battery