TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A homeschooled teenager from Taiwan won two awards at the 2022 Mostratec International Science and Technology fair, which was held in Brazil last week.
At the event, which took place in Novo Hamburgo the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul from Oct. 25-27, Chang Yu-yi (張又懿), a resident of Taoyuan, took first place in the "Planetary and Earth Sciences and Mathematics and Physics" category, reported CNA. She also received a Casio special award for her study, "Don't Dance Inside the House: The Most Safety (sic) Building Against Fire and Smoke."
Mostratec is the largest science fair in South America. Due to the impact of the COVID pandemic, it was virtual in 2020 and 2021.
Chang presents her finding to fair participants. (National Taiwan Science Education Center photo)
As the pandemic has ebbed, the fair was held again in person for the first time in two years. A total of 666 works from eight countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Peru, and Taiwan were presented.
There were 337 in the high school group and 264 from the middle school, elementary, and kindergarten group. Chang was selected to represent Taiwan by the National Taiwan Science Education Center after taking second place at the Taiwan International Science Fair (TISF) 2022.
Chang (left) with Casio award winners. (National Taiwan Science Education Center photo)
Chang said that according to statistics, indoor fires comprise the majority of fire accidents in Taiwan, which are often exacerbated by the poor structural design of buildings or by opening windows or doors when people escape. Chang's project was inspired by her personal experience of witnessing her neighbor's house suffering a serious fire.
In her project, Chang explored from the perspectives of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and theory of structures, and based on the stack effect and the countercurrent smoke layer effect, she used acrylic boards to build a square box to simulate indoor fire in a building. She showed that the opening of doors and windows does not help extinguish fire, but makes it worse due to the influx of oxygen.
Chang (center) with other first-prize winners. (National Taiwan Science Education Center photo)
Chang hopes that her research can be applied to fire prevention and disaster prevention during building construction in the future. At the fair, Chang attracted a lot of attention due to the wide applicability of her work.
A steady stream of teachers and students eagerly inspected her project. In an attempt to cross language and cultural barriers, Chang prepared a Portuguese introduction to Taiwan and presented souvenirs from Taiwan.
