THUNDER BAY -- Don’t tell Emily Cross something’s impossible to achieve.
More than likely, she’ll try to prove you wrong.
It’s this type of attitude that landed the 16-year-old Hammarskjold High School student an invitation to join Team Canada at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix this past weekend, where she placed fourth in the earth and environmental science category, earning a $500 prize.
Overall Canada, led by Vancouver’s first-place finisher Han Jie Wang, took home more than $100,000 in prizes and scholarships.
“It makes me feel really good to know other people recognize what I’ve done and what the whole team has done. It’s really amazing,” said a jetlagged Cross on Monday, taking another day off from school to recover from her cross-continent journey, where her team broke out in a spontaneous singing of Oh Canada to celebrate its remarkable achievements.
The inspiration for her project occurred last year while on a fossil dig.
The budding paleontologist was put in charge of removing specimens safely from ironstone, cautioned it might not be possible without damaging the fossils inside.
Instead of giving up, she sought ways to overcome the obstacle, ultimately discovering chemical treatments that break down the notoriously hard ironstone without damaging the specimens inside.
“Someone told me it couldn’t be done because the ironstone is too hard, so that got me thinking about ironstone,” she said.
“I always think that it can be done and work to try to get it.”
It took the youngster several months to come up with a solution.
“I started the research in August, as soon as I got back from my trip, and started experimenting in around November,” she said.
With back-to-back appearances at the prestigious international science fair, Cross is hoping to make it three in a row in 2017.
What that project will be, however, remains a mystery.
“I don’t know what’s next now. My projects, I always do them on something that inspires me out in the world. So I need to wait for my next inspiration.”
Cross, who mentors students in science, technology, engineering and math, will be a featured speaker at next month’s TedX Thunder Bay event at the Community Auditorium.