Celine is an avid musician—she plays piano, violin, saxophone, and the guitar. She is also a member of her math club and likes to swim and play basketball. Celine dreams of becoming an architect so she can apply her aptitude in math, science, and art.
Celine's physical sciences teacher is her mentor. "He says that science isn't just found in a textbook," Celine notes.
Celine's parents always tell her to wear earplugs while mowing the lawn. She wanted to find how much earplugs diminish noise.
Celine built a model ear made from ceiling acoustical tiles. She drilled hole through the tiles to model the inner ear and attached a funnel to the outside to model the outer ear. She attached a sound level meter to the back of the tile. She then tested several commercial earplugs. She also designed her own earplugs, attaching plastic, metal, or zinc caps to the ends of foam and rubber earplugs. Her designs blocked more sound than the commercial earplugs, leading Celine to file several patent applications.
