Congratulations to Evan Ebesu, 8th grade, for winning six awards at the Hawaii State Science Fair.
If you live in Hawaii, there's a good chance that you like to eat rice. That's certainly the case for 8th grade HBA student Even Ebesu, who used the popular local food staple as the main subject for his multiple, award-winning, science fair project. Ebesu's goal: to remove arsenic from brown rice.
"Last year I tested white rice," said Ebesu. "[This year] I tested brown rice because my Grandma eats it every day."
The inspiration for Ebesu's project began at the start of his 7th grade year. Ebesu said he was searching through several articles, trying to find something that would spark his interest and become the focal point of his science project. He came across an article that said arsenic had been found in rice.
"I like to eat rice and I wanted to see if it was true," said Ebesu.
The first experiment was a big hit. Ebesu represented HBA at the state science fair and was one of 300 semifinalists nominated for the prestigious 2012 Broadcam MASTERS program, which seeks to find the brightest young minds in science and technology across the nation. That success lead Ebesu to do a similar experiment this year on brown rice.
According to Ebesu, brown rice tends to contain higher levels of arsenic because it doesn't go through the same cleaning process that white rice goes through. That means higher traces of arsenic from pesticides and other poisons are more likely to be found.
"The levels [of arsenic] are pretty small, but there's still some concerns. You can [potentially] still get sick, but you'd have to eat a lot of rice," said Ebesu.
Bottom line – you can still eat that daily bowl of rice without any guilt.
To find the arsenic in the rice, Ebesu added citric acid, then cooked the rice in 50 milliliters of water for 45 minutes. After the rice finished cooking, he poured the sample into test tubes, which were then placed into a centrifuge to separate the liquid from the solid. Next, he removed the liquid using a pipette, and then boiled it down. Once that process was complete, the sample was placed in a refrigerator and tested for arsenic levels. If arsenic was found, Ebesu said he used a mixture of binchotan charcoal, bayoxide 33 and distilled water to remove the poison.
"I did this constantly for two to three weeks," said Ebesu. "[The hardest part was] the cooking. I had to constantly stir the rice for 45 minutes. It was pretty painful."
Ebesu's hard work paid off. On April 9, he received the following awards at the Hawaii State Science Fair:
56th Hawaii State Science & Engineering Fair, Best of Chemistry;
American Chemical Society, Hawaii Section, 1st Place $100;
Broadcam MASTERS Semifinalist;
Chevron (Awards of Excellence), $100 Best in Chemistry JR;
Hawaii Academy of Science, Junior Research Best of Chemistry;
and Hawaii Sun products, $100.
This is Ebesu's second time being recognized as a Broadcam MASTERS Semifinalist.
Ebesu says he plans on entering more science fairs in the near future. He says he wants to try new experiments, but if he can't find a good inspiration, he will test more brown rice samples from other parts of the world, like China and Japan.
Ebesu also says he really enjoys learning about chemistry and wants to study it further in college, which could possibly lead to a career.
In addition to his love for science, Ebesu enjoys running, playing soccer and tennis. He also joined HBA's robotics team this year.
HBA was also represented at the state science fair by 7th grade student Natalie Kwon. The topic for her project was entitled, "Can Monkey Pods Kill Bread Mold?"
To participate in the state science fair, both Ebesu and Kwon's projects had to be approved at the district fair.