Hi! I’m Fiona MacLeitch and I’m a Junior at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory. I was born and raised in San Francisco and attended Chinese American International School prior to coming to SHC. In terms of school, math and science classes are my favorite, as they require a great deal of logic and reasoning. I love furthering my own knowledge and pushing myself to find creative solutions to problems. As a student-athlete, I also spend my time playing tennis and dancing ballet. In fact, one of my proudest moments was performing in the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker as a butterfly. Additionally, when I have free time, I enjoy reading, baking, and spending time with my family.

MY BLOGS

i2 Projects

The Compost Cycle

The Compost Cycle is a cycle that takes old food waste and makes something new out of it. We used a process of composting called vermicomposting, which uses redworms and makes fertilizer. With the fertilizer created, we then add the compost into our garden to grow fruits and vegetables and we give the food back to SHC. The school community then creates more food waste so we can continue repeating the cycle.

Project details

The Mental Central

Angeline, Emma, Fiona, and Katia have noticed their peers or even themselves have experienced the struggles of keeping up with their mental health; whether it be due to stress in school, pressure in sports, or even just anxiety about day-to-day experiences. They found that there weren’t many ways to express this feeling within themselves in a healthy way because of the lack of outlets. Although there are definitely adults that are more then happy to assist teenagers that go to them for help, there aren’t many teens that are open to having a conversation with an adult. This leaves teens going to their friends who may give them comfort, but they don’t know how to fully help. The lack of outlets for teens that experience mental health issues makes it more difficult to seek help and get better. When they researched the amount of teens that have mental illness they were not surprised to find that about 1 in 5 teens are suffering with mental illness. With the expertise of those who have information of any mental illnesses and a community that is welcoming and willing to learn, we created a website which is a safe place where teens can go to educate themselves, find resources, and ask questions.

Project details

Ferrofluid Solutions

Ferrofluids are magnetic liquids with tiny iron particles suspended in oil. Essentially, it's just rust powder mixed with vegetable oil. By adding this to water that has microplastics, you would be able to basically magnetize the oil-containing plastic mixture and use a magnet to remove it from the water. For my project this year, I want to test out this idea for myself and experiment with different aspects of it. I want to test various types of oil to see which is the most effective and test a wider variety of microplastics, especially ones with different densities to better understand the effectiveness of my ferrofluid solutions. This experiment would be beneficial to people all around the world. At this point, microplastics are everywhere. They have shown up under the microscope in air samples from remote mountain peaks, ice from arctic waste, and sediment from the deepest ocean trenches. Improving the methods for removing microplastics will have be advantageous world-wide. 

Project details