Two Unalaska City School delegations traveled to Anchorage this weekend for state competitions. There were six students for SkillsUSA Alaska State Leadership and Skills Conference and another six students for the Alaska Science and Engineering Fair.

Steven Ugale is the State Champion for Cabinetmaking, and Cole McCracken is the State Champion for Carpentry. According to CTE teacher Alan Haskins, “This is huge as they beat students from Mat-Su Career and Technical Center, Hutchinson Technical Center, Kenai and many other students from throughout the state. Cole and Steven worked well under pressure, and kept their focus. It was exciting to watch them work.”

Donald Ballou competed in the welding category, Kyle Ballou and Cole McCracken competed in carpentry, Dasha Moyer and Liam Andersen in CADD and Steven Ugale in Cabinet Making. For welding, they had to complete their task in 8.5 hours, for CADD in 4 hours, and in Carpentry and Cabinet Making in 6.5 hours. It was Cole’s first year to compete. He had to build three walls, a rafter, stair stringer and a set of sawhorses. He left Unalaska with no expectations, just excited for the experience. During the competition, he figured he could place third. “When they didn’t call me for third or second, I thought I wasn’t in. But then they called me for first. That was pretty cool.” In 2004, Unalaska had placed 2^nd but this is the first year that they took first place, and they had two for first place winners.

The Alaska Science and Engineering Fair was held at East High School on Saturday, March 22^nd. The district science fair had 100 projects this year and from that, five projects were chosen to go to the state competition. The state participants were Taylor Holman for “Bullet Expansion”, Cade Terada for “Meat Bacteria”, Christian Escalante for “Water and Plant Growth”, Kaye Gumera for “Taste Perception”, Andy Nguyen and Kanesia Price for “Material Absorbency”.  Taylor Holman was a finalist, one of the top 8 high school projects. She wanted her project to be unique, relate to something she was interested in and that had a practical application. “It could be used for military and law enforcement because they look for hallow point bullets, as it can be safer for bystanders,” Holman explains. “Hunters can use this information, and so could people looking for self-defense type bullet.”

In addition to being a finalist, Holman also received first plast in the Physics and Astronomy category. Kaye Gumera placed first in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Kanesia Price and Andy Nguyen placed 1^st for Environmental Management and Sciences and 1^st for their Abstract, Cade Terada placed second on Microbiology and Christian Escalante placed 3^rd for her Abstract. 

Please click here for a list of UCSD Science Fair Winners.