A School Science Project: Canada

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Science Fairs

Nature of Science

Edward Hessler

The CBC posted an article recently about a young Calgary student, Nora Keegan, who has pursued a question--on the use of electric hand driers and hurting ears, since she was 9 years old.

Now at the advanced age of 13, she has a paper (single author) in Paediatics & Child Health, Canada's top peer-reviewed pediatric journal which includes new information on an air/sound filter she has developed. 

How did she get interested? "In grade 4, I kind of noticed that my ears hurt after the hand dryer." Ditto grade 5 so then she began investigating it. 

Keegan tested 44 different dryers in Calgary in locations where kids might use them (or have no choice). Quite a few exceeded the noise level allowed for children's toys. She was very smart about this for she made measurements where children would likely stand, NOT adults. Keegan has also invented a prototype air diverters for kid-sized users.

One of the things I like about the CBC article is that it describes how the study began, evolved and eventually resulted in a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal. It is another example of the nature of science and engineering, too.

I think it a lovely piece of work.