Spotlight on the Eighth Grade, Southwest/Pacific Regional First Place Team: Dust Busters

Four eighth grade students from The Harker School in San Jose, Calif., received a regional first-place award in this year’s national eCYBERMISSION competition. With this award, each team member will receive a $3,000 U.S. EE Savings Bond, a certificate of recognition from the U.S. Army and an expenses-paid trip to the National Judging and Educational Event (NJ&aEE) in Baltimore, Md., in June to present their final projects.

The “Dust Busters” team, comprised of students Allen Cheng, Daniel Pak, Albert Chu and Sharon Babu, and led by Team Advisor Vandana Kadam, was recognized for its investigation into a community-wide controversy revolving around dust coming from a local quarry.



The team set out to discover whether or not mercury emissions from a local cement plant were higher than the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. Although the students discovered that the quarry was not in violation, the levels of mercury in the bodies of water near the quarry were much higher than in other bodies of water in their community. To raise awareness in their community, the students presented their findings to the City Council and created a pamphlet, which they handed out to members of their community by going from door-to-door.

To view a full list of the 2009-2010 eCYBERMISSION regional winning teams, click here.