Molokai Competes at Maui Science Fair

Three-legged dogs around the world have a new hero in Moriah Jenkins. She is on her way to help save 50,000 dogs a year with her prosthetic leg project, which she presented at the Maui Schools Science and Engineering Fair last week in Wailuku.

Jenkins is one of two students from Molokai who will be going to the state tournament on Oahu in the last week of March. Molokai sent 26 students to the competition on Maui – 11 middle school students and 15 high school students.

The students went through two rounds of judging on Molokai, already. They were judged in the classroom and there was island-wide judging at the high school on Dec. 9.

Jenkins’ called her project “Save the Three-Legged Dog.” Her robotic prosthetic leg would help dogs with amputated legs. She said the idea came from the fact that “74 percent of all dogs with amputated dogs die each year.”

She prepared several 3D models before entering the science fair and presented her poster to the judges.
“I’m really proud of myself, because I stood out the most in my group,” Jenkins said.

Another student, Molokai Middle seventh-grader Amber Aselin, designed a project called “Walk the Line.” She built a robot out of LEGOs that would follow a black line with a light sensor laser.

To find the effectiveness of the light sensor, she tested it by putting the black line on different colors of paper. She will also be going to states.

Jennifer Aiona, a science teacher at the middle school is excited because this is the first time she has had a student compete at states.

“I’m really proud of her. She developed her skills on the robotics team and came up with her own ideas,” Aiona said.