Waipahu Student Rockets to Hawai‘i State Science Fair

Waipahu High School student Diana Castaneda has been selected to compete in the Hawai’i State Science Fair thanks to her project titled, “Stardust and Black Holes: Star Formation Rates of Galaxies.”

Diana’s mentor, Gemini Science Fellow Andreea Petric, began working with Diana thanks to an outreach program last summer at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) meeting in Honolulu. The program allowed Andreea to visit four classes at Waipahu High School while on Oʻahu, and while there she offered to work with interested students looking for a science fair research project in astronomy. Andreea is currently working with three students at Waipahu High School all of whom are engaged in real research, and in the process, learned the computer programming language Python, and participated in regular teleconferences.

“My hope is that the students see that there are many good careers in the world for them. Itʻs important that they grow and strengthen a voice in their heads and hearts that tells them that they can achieve, even, and especially, when others may tell them that they cannot,” says Andreea.

In February Diana participated in the Leeward District Science Fair where she was told sheʻd be moving on to the State Science and Engineering Fair. Her project compares star formation rates to black hole masses to find connections between the growth of the black hole to the growth of the galaxy. Diana looked at sample sources of well-measured black holes and hypothesized that the paper from which the sample sources were taken had missed some star formation due to dust obscuration in observations made at optical wavelengths. She further hypothesized, and showed, that star formation measurements from far infrared (FIR) data can be more accurate.

Diana looked at samples of well-measured black hole masses published in the Matsuoka et al. (2015) paper. This is a histogram of redshifts (z) as observed by Matsuoka et al. included in Castanedaʻs lab report.

The Waipahu senior completed this project as a part of her Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Honors Diploma requirements.

“… [S]he goes above and beyond my expectations and proves as a role model for other students. I wouldnʻt be surprised if she continues with a career in astronomy and continues her research beyond college,” says Dianaʻs STEM Capstone advisor, Tessie Lumabao.

Diana will graduate from Waipahu High School this May and plans to go to college so she can study physics or astronomy.

The Hawai’i State Science and Engineering Fair is slated take place at the Hawai’i Convention Center on March 28-30, 2016 in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

Good Luck Diana!