Colorado Science and Engineering Fair Awards for Excellence in Earth Sciences.

The RMAG Foundation provided prize money for the winners of the Excellence in Earth Science Award at the Colorado Science & Engineering Fair. The Fair was held in Fort Collins on April 9-11. The 2026 winners were:

Senior Division Winner:

Year: 2026

William Walker 11th grade, Monte Vista High School, Monte Vista
Modeling the Impacts of Flow Rate on Riparian Beach Stability (awarded $300)

Year: 2025

First prize – Colter Dennision, 9th grade Mancos HS
Toxic Tributaries 2: Rivers effect on soil chemistry. His project measured the heavy metals in the Lower Mancos river using XRF (awarded $300)
Second prize – Lochlan DaRonco, 12th grade Evergreen HS
Bear Creek Geological and pH Analysis: His project tried to tie the underlying geology to the pH of the creek in the Evergreen area (awarded $200)

Year: 2024

Elizabeth Vossler (11th grade): Detention Basin Systems: Mitigating Stormwater in Hampden Heights and Its Implications on Cherry Creek Water Quality– Denver School of the Arts (awarded $400)
Juakin Sawatzky (9th grade): The Effects of the Run-Off from Mine Tailings on Daphnia Magna – Liberty School (awarded $300)

Junior Division Winners:

Year: 2026

Colter Dennison 10th grade, Mancos High School, Mancos
Toxic Tributaries 3: Mines Effect On Rivers Health (awarded $200)

Year: 2025

First prize – Lyndee Thomson and Ryder Pryor 7th grade West Grand Middle School, Kremmling
Waters’ Way: Their project measured heavy metal concentration of the town’s water at three stations to determine what effect PVC pipes had on water quality. (awarded $300)
Second prize – Ben Zhao 8th grade Summit Charter School, Boulder.
Earthquake Asperities relation to recurrence: His project measured geomechanical failures of clay material baked to different hardness to determine if hardness differences between layers plays a role in earthquakes (awarded $200)

Year: 2024

Tejas Raman (8th grade): Pattern-Based Seismology – Boulder Country Day School (awarded $300)