13-Year-Old Girl Wins Big at D.C. STEM Competition – $25,000 Prize!
Young people today are feeling the pressure from climate change and the warming planet. Many young people, especially teenagers, are worried and anxious about what the future holds.
A recent survey published in the Lancet shows that many young people feel upset, angry, and powerless when thinking about the environment and climate change.
However, despite all the concerns, there is still a lot of hope and creativity coming from our youth. A great example of this comes from a 13-year-old girl from San Jose who came up with a solution for filtering water.
Clean water is very important for life, but with the effects of climate change, it’s becoming harder for many people to access clean water, especially as droughts become more severe.
Tina Jin, a middle school student from San Jose, decided to do something about this problem. “Actually, two billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water. And that’s what inspired my project: to find a nearly zero-cost way to filter water,” Tina said.
Although she is only 13 years old, Tina is incredibly smart and thoughtful for her age. She recently met with CBS News Bay Area at the Cupertino Public Library and brought her supportive mom, Mary, along.
Tina proudly introduced her mom, saying, “This is my awesome, amazing mom. She’s the best cook on earth and also very supportive and very nice.”
Mary Jin, Tina’s mom, was by her side when they travelled to Washington, D.C., for the nation’s top Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) competition.
It’s called the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, and it draws in about 65,000 middle school students each year. Tina made it to the finals, being one of just 30 students selected for this prestigious event.
“I wanted to find a way to use natural materials to create a water filter,” Tina explained. After thinking about the problem, she realized that animal bones could be the answer.
She noticed that bones have tiny holes, much like a commercial water filter. This honeycomb structure made the bones porous, which could help in filtering water. The idea clicked for her, but first, she needed a lot of bones to test her idea.
Tina remembered something her mom often said when buying meat: “I remember my mom always complains about how much in one pound of meat there’s probably more bone than meat,” Tina laughed.
This gave her the idea to use animal bones that would otherwise be thrown away after family meals. She started collecting these bones and experimenting to see if they could filter dirty water.
At first, only part of the animal bones worked. But Tina didn’t give up. She figured out a way to grind up the bones and make them even more effective. By grinding the bones into powder, she was able to make a portable water filter.
She assembled it using everyday household supplies and tested it by running dirty water through the filter. An outside expert confirmed that Tina’s water filter worked, and she was one step closer to solving a huge problem.
“By grinding the animal bones, you can use all parts of the bone, so my filter was able to work successfully,” said Tina. Her hard work and creativity caught the attention of the judges, and she won the ASCEND (Aspiring Scientists Cultivating Exciting New Discoveries) Award. This prestigious prize came with a $25,000 reward.
When CBS News Bay Area asked her mom how she felt about her daughter’s success, Tina translated for her: “My mom said she was just so excited. She was speechless.”
With the prize money, Tina plans to save it for her college education. She’s also applying for a patent for her innovative water filter.
Despite the challenges that climate change presents, Tina believes there is still hope. “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something,” she said with confidence.
Tina’s bone-based water filter has been a true success, and it’s a perfect example of how young people are coming up with new ideas to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems.