Alyssa expresses herself with the flute and piano and is a member of her student council. She'd like to pursue a career in aerospace engineering or science writing.
One sign of quality paint is its ability to withstand weather. A previous science project showed that chicken feathers resist water, so Alyssa thought that adding feathers to paint could make it more weatherproof.
Alyssa worked in a paint laboratory and created paint with various percentages of chicken feather fiber. She then painted a substrate, took an initial gloss reading, and subjected the samples to QUV (ultraviolet light) and Cleveland humidity tests – the industry standard tests for weather durability. The best-performing paint used 50 percent talc (a common paint binder) and 50 percent chicken feather fibers. She plans further testing with smaller grinds of feathers to help preserve gloss.
