Category Archives: State Science Fair

Congratulations to Young Scientist Abby Loney, Bronze Award Winner in the State Science Fair!

By Maria Ofitserova

At Pickering Laboratories, we are always excited to support young scientists as they explore their interests. Let us introduce Abby Loney from Moorhead, Minnesota. Abby’s science fair project idea was to investigate the durability of ballet pointe shoes and to see if some non-traditional materials could provide increased longevity. 

It is not a secret that hard working ballerinas put tons of effort into their training and performances, resulting in sweat-soaked pointe shoes! So, Abby wanted to study the effect of sweat on different materials. Abby’s search for sweat solutions that could be used for testing brought her to Pickering’s artificial perspiration products. She’s in good company – several well-known footwear companies have followed the same line of thought and currently use Pickering artificial perspiration products to test the materials used in design and production of footwear insoles, leathers/uppers and soles.

After Abby contacted our technical support chemists about her proposed project, Pickering was happy to donate the artificial perspiration needed to complete her science fair work. We left off by wishing Abby luck in her experiment and future presentation at her local Science Fair.

Recently, Abby shared with us that over the last couple of months, her project earned the ASM Materials Education Foundation Award, as well as 3rd place in Middle School Division at the Regional Science Fair, then finally earning the Bronze Award at the Minnesota State Science Fair! These are really great accomplishments and we would like to wholeheartedly congratulate Abby on her wonderful work.

If you would like to learn more about this project and whether or not manufacturers of ballet pointe shoes should change their ways, please take a look at Abby’s presentation:
https://youtu.be/AMANaauFzYM

Congratulations again, Abby! Best of luck with all your future scientific adventures!