Ariel Stiber makes an impact in national young-scientist challenge

Not too many tornadoes hit western Washington.

Still, 10-year-old Ariel Stiber thought they represented an interesting topic. Apparently, the judges of a national science competition thought Ariel did a pretty good of explaining that interesting topic.

Making her home in Kenmore and set to attend Northshore Junior High in the coming school year, Ariel took first place for the state of Washington in the 12th annual Discovery Education and 3M Young Scientist Challenge.

She joins 47 other semifinalist winners from across the country, all hoping for a trip to New York City where 10 finalists will compete for, among other awards, a $50,000 grand prize and the title, according to Ariel, of the top young scientist in the country.

Just for making the semifinals, Ariel brought home $250, as well as other prizes, including a plaque for her science teacher.

“I just like science, I like how it explains how the world works,” Ariel said.

Apparently, so does older sister, Maia, Ariel’s only sibling and part of a Northshore School District team that took third place in a Washington science olympiad. That triumph helped inspire Ariel to enter the 3M contest.

For the competition, Ariel had a number of topics to choose from, such as preventing the spread of germs, ensuring food safety and so on. What piqued Ariel’s interest was researching what kind of homes and roofs are most resistant to tornadoes and wind damage.

In the course of a two-minute video shot for the contest, Ariel shares that a home with a hip-style roof (with all sides sloping down to meet the walls of the house) set at a 14-degree slope would fare best in heavy gusts. What might fare the worst? Probably a home with a gabled, multi-angled roof that gives the wind too many surfaces to grab hold of. Ariel used animation and some computerized camera tricks to jazz up the video nicely.

Ariel’s father, Michael Stiber, shot the video. Ariel admitted some shots took more than one take, but the end result is a notably smooth, clear presentation. As Ariel talks, there is not an “umm” or hesitation to be heard.

While Michael acted as cameraman for the project, Ariel said she did the research for the piece herself, mostly on the Internet. She also wrote the script and spent a couple of days editing the video.

“I think that was probably the hardest part,” said Michael, referring to cutting down the shot scenes. He said Ariel had a lot of good information, but rules required each contest video be exactly two minutes long.

Ariel also completed the special camera and audio effects herself.

During the video, Ariel can be seen standing in a crayon drawing of a home and even in a doll house she owns. Still, a 3M press release states entries were judged on classroom suitability and persuasiveness, among other qualities, but not on video production values.

Not surprisingly, Ariel thinks a trip to New York City and a shot at the grand prize would be great. She’ll find out sometime this month if she is among those selected for the final competition, which takes place in October and will consist of some kind of further science challenge. In any case, Ariel said she’s already happy with what she’s won so far.

“It means I’m good at science,” she said.

Clearly, math and science skills run in the family. Michael is a computer-science professor at the University of Washington, Bothell, while mom, Bilin, is an engineer and part-time UW-Bothell teacher.

As for Ariel, for now, she plans to choose from among several possible future professions. She might follow her dad into computer science, take on biology or study space.

“I don’t want to go into space, I want to study rocks from space,” Ariel said.

Come the next school year, Ariel will start junior high a year ahead of time, moving from fifth grade to seventh. Despite being in the fifth grade last school year, she already was taking ninth-grade math and will tackle the 10th-grade version of the subject next year. Ariel said she’s not too worried about moving into junior high ahead of schedule.

“It’s a little weird because I’ll be the smallest and the youngest in the class,” Ariel said. “But it will be good.”