NSF PA/M 02-10 - February 8, 2002
Bayer/NSF Competition Winners To Be Featured on
Oprah Winfrey Show Feb. 11
The middle school students who are the most recent
winners of the Bayer/NSF Award’s Columbus Foundation
Community Grant will be featured on the Oprah Winfrey
Show on Feb. 11, 2002. The team of Native American
girls from Crow Agency, Montana -- Lucretia Birdinground,
Kimberly Duputee, Omney Sees the Ground, Brenett Stewart
-- and their coach, science teacher Jack Joyce, were
taped at the Crow Reservation on Feb. 4 and will appear
in the front row of the studio audience for the Feb.
11 show.
The girls developed a project based on their concern
for the severe housing shortage on their reservation
and the chance to compete in the Bayer/NSF Awards
for Community Innovation. The girls found a way to
build low-cost houses out of straw and stucco concrete.
The girls tested the straw with blowtorches, hoses
and thermometers to determine its resistance to fire
and water, as well as its energy efficiency.
As a result of the team’s award, a number of community
partners have volunteered to bring the girls’ idea
to life. In July of this year, the team and partners
will build a straw-bale community center on the Crow
Reservation in Montana. The team, through the Bayer/NSF
Award, also receives mentoring and assistance in implementing
the project.
The Columbus Community Grant is awarded each year to
a team of innovative middle school students to help
bring a promising project to fruition. The sponsors,
the Bayer Corporation, the National Science Foundation
and the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation,
challenge everyday kids to use science and technology
to identify and develop a solution to a community
problem.
For more information see: http://www.bayernsfaward.com
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