with their first-place trophy.
Students at Harmony Public Schools overachieve our standards. Year after year, our students win countless awards from science fairs around the world.
Aaditya Krishna Arun, an 11th-grade student from Harmony School of Innovation – Sugar Land, won 1st place at a science fair in Brazil!
He ran against 755 research participants in the 2021 Mostratec Virtual International Science and Technology Fair in Brazil. This annual science fair presents projects conducted by young scientists in schools. Robotics, sports, and other cultural activities were part of the science fair as well.
“Earlier this year, I won first place in the Harmony Science and Engineering Fair in their Senior Division for Health and Medicine,” said Arun. “Based on this, I was nominated to participate in Mostratec 2021.”
With this accomplishment, his success would not be possible without the help from his Harmony mentors.
“I would like to genuinely thank Ms. Zadeh (GATE coordinator), Dr. Rustveld (Professor at Baylor), Mr. Centikaya (Project Director at HPS), and Ms. Faith (science teacher). They all motivated me to enter different competitions. They offered wonderful guidance and were supportive from my science project through the application process.”
Arun’s research experiment dealt with understanding the effects of excess fluoride on human health in groundwater.
“What inspired me to conduct this experiment was when I visited my hometown in South India,” said Arun. “With the excessive amount of fluoride in groundwater, this affects dental and skeletal defects, neurological problems, and pregnancy.”
People in his community in South India use groundwater for drinking, cooking, and other daily needs. According to Arun, access to proper water filtration is too expensive for these residents.
“This motivated me to develop an inexpensive dip bag-based biofilter to study the effect of fluoride on human health,” said Arun. “I discovered the effect of excess fluoride on pregnancy outcomes in women, specifically those in the Hispanic community.”
The goal of his study was to highlight the importance of implementing community-wide methods to reduce excess fluoride in water. This also helps bring awareness to women in the Hispanic community about the harmful effects of excessive fluoride consumption on pregnancy outcomes. As well as, developing an in-expensive filter to reduce fluoride in water just like the dip bag-based biofilter Arun invented.
This has not been the only recognized science experiment project he has conducted. Arun has won many other awards such as first place in the Houston Medical Academy and Harris County Medical Association at the Science Engineering Fair of Houston, third place award for the Medicine and Health Category at the Texas State Science Fair, and many others.
With all these great accomplishments, Arun is not stopping here. He plans to continue entering more science competitions and dreams of being part of the Intel and Regeneron science fairs one day.
As for his future career goals after high school, he plans on attending medical school to become a doctor to give back to his community. In the meantime, he wants to volunteer in hospitals in underdeveloped countries.
“My goal is to become a physician that specializes in pediatric psychiatry,” says Arun. “I am understanding of the challenges that kids can go through. I plan on making a difference in helping kids overcome obstacles and be successful.”