Nixon High School and BIPS Early College Academy junior Austlynn Quiroz, who is passionate about science, conducted an experiment for the 2024 Laredo ISD Secondary Schools Science Fair. For her determination, Austlynn won first place in the Engineering, Physics, Math, and Coding Division with her project entitled "Bayes’ Theorem Year Two: Implementation towards Society” and was declared the Grand Champion of the Science Fair Competition.
Austlynn, who is participating in the LISD Science Fair for the second time, used her experience from last year’s competition to expand her findings.
“I used all the feedback from last year and I really implemented it this year. I put a lot of education, I put a lot of time into it. My sponsors and my teachers know much how much it means to me,” said Quiroz. “This really means a lot to me, because I'm really passionate about science and I want to become an engineer when I grow up.”
“I was so nervous. When I heard my name called out, I felt like a rush of blood went straight to my head. Just cool down,” said Quiroz.
Quiroz will represent Nixon High School the BIPS Early College Academy, and Laredo ISD at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, CA. May 11 - 17. She will join other high school students from around the world who will display their independent research.
“When I’m thinking of a science project, I'm thinking about what I could do to change our society and what it could do for us to grow as a community,” said Quiroz. “I'm thinking what’s going to make an impact, make a statement and what's going to make women in STEM look great.”
The purpose behind Quiroz project was to identify potential signs of valor in personality traits to ensure school safety in LISD Security Systems. Bayes’ Theorem will determine the likelihood an individual would act in a high-risk situation based on their psychological and/or demographic profile across the U.S.
She came up with the theory that she could use statistics and correlate it with real world issues. She found out that Bayes’ Theorem is the most accurate you can get when you have to work with probability when dealing with mass school shootings.
Based off Austlynn’s conclusion, she was able to get that information and implement it into her school system by sharing it with her principal and her administrators.
Austlynn’s passion for science began at an early age. “I want to say second grade. Ever since we started having those little teeny tiny science fair in elementary school. I want to say that when I actually started making an impact was in 6th grade. That is when I competed with my project and won grand champion. That's what really started the bridge for me,” said Quiroz. “I felt that I always had a connection with science and always had a way to represent myself about how passionate I am about something. It went on from there. I’ve been working on it every year since.”
Attending the upcoming Science Fair with Quiroz will be her science fair project sponsor who also served as her physics teacher at Nixon High School Melissa Allred.
“I would really like to thank my mom. She is a really big inspiration to me. She is my biggest motivation honestly,” said Quiroz. “Every time I'm doing a project, every time I'm double checking something, who do I go to ask first, my mom, because she's the person I trust most.”
Austlynn is a member of the Nixon High School Girls Cross Country, who advanced to State this year, UIL Debate, Cheerleader, which were recently named Grand National Champions, and soon to be Vice President for the Chess Club.
Her future plans include attending her dream school, Norte Dame to purse a degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in biochemistry. She hopes to work with insulin levels that correlate with the medical field so that she could be able to help her grandfather who is suffering from diabetes.
In the high school division, the Grand Champion runner-up is the project entitled: “An effective water filtration system based on a differentiated polymer technique” by Giselle Luna from Cantu ECHS. The Grand Champion for Middle School is the project entitled: “Ready set Plant” by Keyla Alvarado from Memorial Middle School and the runner-up for Middle School is the project entitled: “Clean Cart” by Emma Maroquin from Lamar Middle School.