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BRIGHT MIND: Destin teen selected as county's Sunshine State Scholar
Marching band season has come to an end, and for Niceville High School junior Kyle Saleeby that means more time for researching his upcoming science fair experiment.
Between music and homework, “it takes up a majority of my time, but every minute of it is worth it,” said the 17 year old.
The Destin teen was recently named the 2012 Sunshine State Scholar for Okaloosa County. The program recognizes the top 11th grade student in science, technology, engineering and math from each of the 67 districts in Florida.
In February, Saleeby will travel to Orlando for the Florida Education Foundation’s Sunshine State Scholars Program where he will have the chance to meet with college recruiters from around the state.
“Right now, I want to go into either engineering or medicine — maybe both. But my final goal is med school,” Saleeby told The Log.
Since middle school, he has been researching and testing alternatives to clean energy by creating a segmented, offset water wheel to generate power. In the past three years, the science fair project has taken him to four international science fairs and three state fairs.
The wheel, which is mounted to an old pontoon boat, creates 80 amps, or 400 watts, of power. While he said it isn’t enough to power an entire house, Saleeby said the water wheel could power a TV, a refrigerator and a substantial number of other household appliances.
Because he couldn’t fit a TV or a fridge on the boat, Saleeby demonstrated the effectiveness of his water wheel by hooking up a bank of car headlights.
“It can create an amazing amount of energy from a fairly small amount of space. My wheel only takes up a one-meter square…” said Saleeby. “Cambridge has done the same thing, so it’s ironic that I had the idea first.”
While he plans to continue work on his water wheel design, this year Saleeby’s science fair project will look at increasing friction between car tires and a slick surface.
Last year, Saleeby was one of two student representatives from the school’s NaGISA (Natural Geography Inshore Areas) team to travel to the Census of Marine Life World Conference in London, England.
‘We presented in front of the world’s best scientific minds… It was a great honor and awesome… ,” he said.
