Projects

By Aryana Mohajerian

How does effective cash flow management impact the success of a local Hawaiian chocolate business? The financial plan while trying to scale a business is what eventually will make or break the company. Having the capital to level up the business is crucial for long-term success. Lonohana is a local, natural, and ethical Hawaiian chocolate company. I will be involved in the process of creating a solid strategic financial plan so that Lonohana can scale the business with the right capital, financing, and budgets to put them in a good position for systematic efficiency.

by Hana Hagen

As a "sustainable" business owner, I found myself labeling my company, Hana Hagen Swimwear, as an eco-friendly, sustainable business. I recently discovered that almost nothing is sustainable, and it made me question whether sustainability is just a marketing ploy. I want to know how I can improve my business and make my eco-friendly label legit. Fast fashion has thrived in our consumer society, and its effects on the environment are beginning to reveal themselves, which tears me up. I am passionate about putting a product out into the world that I am proud of, which means it needs to fit my criteria of being environmentally friendly.

By Auston Hutcheon

I am the first student in AER to take the Business Challenge plan. This entails that I job shadow Jeremy Sampson the general manager of Big Canyon Country Club. I will also shadow other members of the club including chef Craig Strong. Chef Strong recently released a brand new dinner menu. This menu will last for around 3-4 months. During that time every 2 weeks I will be collecting data to find a trend in certain dishes on the menu; this will help chef better understand what the members of the club like and dislike on the menu. With this information Chef Strong will have a solid understanding of what he should and should not keep on the menu when he alters it again.

By Carter Ghere

My project will be to find a correlation between socioeconomic periods and aerodynamic changes in car design during those times. I want to see how car design is influenced by its consumer base and lifestyles rather than a car's design team/brand.

by OSCAR JACQUEZ

CGI and Cinematography are fairly recent concepts originating in the 20th century which are fundamental in every blockbuster today. My goal and project this year is to find out the relationship between cinematography and CGI as well as how they impact each other in the creative process of filming. I hope to do this through a mix of diving into literature and sources as well as using other students to help my project through several procedures that I hope to implement into my work by the end of the year.

by Chanel Goddard

Going into the design field, I am researching on the wonders and interests I have about set design. To challenge this interest, I decided to dig deeper into the benefits and status that set design gives. Questioning how largely known high fashion brands use set design/production in their seasonal fashion shows to gain popularity and status is main focus which will lead into researching statistics between different brands and possibly different current events that were incorporated into the fashion industry. 

by Samantha Flores CarRillo

Fashion week is one of the most important events in the fashion industry, this show enables fashion designers, brands, or "houses" to demonstrate and display their most current collections in this runway fashion show, giving them a chance to show their work to the media and consumers. Social Media has made a big change to fashion week in many ways, but most importantly it has promoted this event and made it more popular. In my research, I want to analyze the factors that social media has done to make this possible.

by Alexandra swellen

Coming Soon 

By tyler palino

I will be researching what is the best way to educate older adults in Orange County to defend themselves against common online scams. I see that there is a lack of educators for older adults that live either alone or in facilities as the responsibility for educating older family members falls onto the family. With online scams, older adults are the most preyed upon. Due to their usually more trusting nature and lack of technology skills, they are the most taken advantage of demographic. I plan to research the most common scams, create lessons that will be presented at facilities, connect with local facilities, and create helpful pamphlets for older adults to take and utilize in the future.

by Kirra Moore

I will be creating an online and in paper journal on international relations. The purpose of my product is to measure how social media has shaped journalism in today's world. I found that social media has had a large impact on the world around me from attention spans to how we as a society view the news. This pushed my curiosity on the topic and I wanted to learn more. I will collect data on how well each version of my journal statistically and draw conclusions about how journalism has changed over the past decade in the digital age.

by oliver behunin

Coming Soon 

By Jackson Lawsky

Many internal conflicts around the world start or continue because of disputes over natural resources. Often times, sub-national groups have disputes with central governments over the control of these natural resources and where the wealth from them will go. I will seek to determine if sharing these natural resources between the central and sub-national governments is effective in creating stability. The reason conflicts start has always sparked interest in me and I want to gain a deeper understanding of potential solutions along my research process.

by Sai machiraju

My AER project will determine how successful digital banking services and welfare systems have been in lifting large swaths of the Indian population from poverty. The majority of Indian workers labor in the informal sector, receiving non-taxable cash payments (instead of bank deposits) and minimal government protections. My paper makes policy recommendations based on data from India's initiatives, and I hope that my research will inform anti-poverty efforts in other developing nations. I believe that the large informal economy prevents India from mimicking the rapid growth of East Asian economies.

By nicholai grombchevsky

I will research correlations between government response to pandemics and other viral outbreaks. Throughout history, there has been opposition to government involvement in the health sector, ranging from disregarding health regulations to conspiracy theories. When making these decisions, it is challenging to balance logical thinking and the response, mostly emotional, of the people. By finding and presenting these correlations in a simple and effective formal, I hope to create a tool that can help health policymakers get to the best possible balance between health and peoples’ view and trust in the institution.

By Alexandra grombchevsky

Legislation has contributed to advances within the athletic training profession to create a safer environment for student-athletes. However, there has been little research regarding the qualifications that coincide with the athletic training profession. California is the only state that does not have certification requirements such as an athletic training license. Therefore it is necessary to research the effects this has on the athletes. The purpose of this project is to bring attention to the effects the lack of legislation has on high school athletic trainers and the safety of the athletes. 

By Maximo cossa golia

I'm planning on researching skin cycling and if it genuinely does work. Skin cycling has recently been trending on social media. Skin cycling is significant because it's fantastic at targeting acne. Dr. Whitney Bowe, a New York-based dermatologist, has been credited with coining the term "skin cycling." Skin cycling is a simple method in which you rotate your skin care products between retinoids, chemical exfoliators, and moisturizers throughout the week to maximize the benefits of each product and to avoid over-exfoliating your skin. The reason why I'll be doing this research is that Retinol saved my skin. It cleared my skin right up. I think skin cycling could be a significant skincare innovation. So, if you understand skin cycling and its benefits, you should be excited. But skin cycling could be a trendy term for rotating your active ingredients. As such, it could by no means be a breakthrough in skin health.

by hailey weng

My project dives into how camera distortion can affect teenage mental health. I hope to shed light on this issue and make it known that not everything is how it appears on camera."

by coleman judd

In the modern world, mental health is becoming increasingly prevalent as new diagnoses and illnesses arise. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a leading cause of suicide and general decline of well-being in trauma victims. Treatment to these issues is becoming harder to achieve with hard to access pharmaceuticals and substances with high drawbacks. A leading potential change to this roadblock is the institutionalization of psychedelics in the medical field. Due to their recent stigma with Nixon’s “War on Drugs” these substances were classified as Schedule 1 Drugs, the most restricted classification of drugs. This halted research and use not only in the United States, but globally as other countries followed suit. Here my interest originated as this propaganda against hallucinogens spread misinformation to follow the government's agenda. With careful study and regulation, psychedelics contain the potential to save lives against seemingly invisible illnesses in the brain. 

by logan teeple

My research will explore the future of passenger aircraft design. It will show what are the driving forces of innovation and what the current stage of aircraft design looks like. The importance of efficiency will be explored. The project will focus on three major technologies that the future could hold. These technologies will be analyzed to decide which one will most likely prevail. This research is important as the world relies on commercial aviation to interact with people across the globe. The importance of efficiency is more important than ever as our climate crisis and the imposed sanctions on carbon emissions grow.

by ranen seeck

All I knew coming into this class was that I wanted to learn about something cool, something unique. Once I heard about the opportunity to go to a farm, I was in. I didn't know why, but there was something about working with natural resources that made me feel a comforting pureness.  So sustainability came into mind, but sustainability can be done through many things, and its impossible to be fully sustainable in this day in age. But through guidance and consideration I developed the specification to re-using water (one of the most valuable natural resources) to save more money in order to grow your own food. Know this covers farming, water conservation, and a bit of engineering to find a way to combine sustainable practices together with simply water and growing crops. I believe this effort can drive our thinking further to create a more sustainable future, that is a lot more cool.

By Maxim Bernik

How has Covid-19 affected the prices of meals differently in restaurants in different cities of the Central Region of Orange county? With coronavirus affecting so many restaurant businesses with some closing for good or struggling to keep open it has created a huge roadblock for restaurants. With so many people losing jobs, with transportation of goods being much more difficult it has affected restaurants to have to create a change to the way they run. They need to fluctuate their prices, to what the supply and demand of their meals are, to how they have such a small staff, or to the restrictions coronavirus has created for restaurants. There has been so many things changed in the restaurant business, so then how has the coronavirus affected the prices of meals.

by kate madigan

Especially due to modern ways of obtaining or selling products, it is extremely important for lawyers and businesses to fight Intellectual Property infringement.  For my project, I will be researching and drawing conclusions about the best way lawyers can prevent Chinese IP infringement specifically, due to the immense amount of infringement that occurs from there already. The purpose of this project is to expand my knowledge of Intellectual Property law and obtain data that could help inform others as well.

by logan teeple

For my project, I will be creating a digital program/platform for filtering and selling boats. My mentor works for Sun Country Marine Group which is a large motor yacht retailer. They sell boats ranging from thirteen feet to 65 foot yachts. I am looking to create a platform that can filter through this range depending on what a buyer is looking for. It will take into consideration many aspects such as speed, range, cost, and length. We will survey yacht owners to find out what was appealing to them when buying their boat and use this qualitative data to create the platform.

by hailey weng

My project is all about discovering how brands can maximize their sales through social media. I will follow user trends to understand what is deemed popular in the public's eye, and will discover different ways I can maximize the reach of a brands content. The purpose of my project is to gain a better understanding of what businesses can do to manipulate the media's algorithm in a way that benefits their company. I am partnering up with a local lifestyle brand, and will be running experiments on their behalf. Questions like what app is the most efficient when trying to sell product, and tactics a business can do to sell more product will be answered in my paper!

By jackson flemming

The film industry has produced content in relatively the same way for over 100 years, however, the rise of the digital age has introduced a new method of producing content for consumers. This year I will be researching how the rise of digital streaming services, such as Netflix, has impacted the way production companies release their content. As this new medium for content distribution has been dominating the film industry in recent years, it has placed the film industry at a crossroads. While most production companies produced movies through a theatrical release, streaming services have introduced a subscription based system that values convenience over experience. Many people are now wondering: What is next for the film industry? I hope to answer this question by comparing these business models to see which model will survive this turning point in the industry.

by emma purdy

How has surf culture influenced high fashion from 1980 to 2021? Surf culture is ever so present in 2021 fashion trends from runway looks to day-to-day wear. My goal is to gain an understanding of how trends work so that I can fully explain how surf culture has influenced fashion trends since the 80s.

by gavin zaengle

This project dives into the publishing of a video game, and specifically will answer whether a game creator should publish their game as free-to-play or as paid. Nowadays, video games like Fortnite and Call of Duty have millions of players online and playing every day. With this comes a lot of profit through in game transactions and the actual purchasing of a game. The biggest question is, which business model is overall the most profitable. This will aid new and aspiring game creators in taking their next and possibly most important step to constructing a successful game.

By owen dyer

This research paper seeks to determine if further integration can help solve the European Union's current political and economic problems. Since its founding, the European Union has been partially integrated, or half-built. The inherent incompleteness of the EU has resulted in inefficiency and has exastrubated several calamities. This project will analyze the role of partial integration on causing or worsening three recent European issues: the eurozone crisis, Brexit, and the European migrant crisis. In addition, I hope to determine whether or not these problems can be solved by further European integration. Ultimately, my project should provide reasoning for or against European integration.

by isabela reichel

In my research, I seek to understand the past, present, and future perceptions of Socialism in the United States. Naturally, this has affected and been affected by the respective state of global politics. In my opinion, Socialism has been vastly misunderstood as an ideology, mainly because of extremist-communist dictatorships during the 20th century. Even many academics refuse to have a civil conversation on the merits and drawbacks of leftism because of the stigma associated with far left-wing politics. My AER project mainly serves to answer how people think of Socialism and how this affects the implementation of leftist policies in United States politics.

by abigail roedersheimer

America has seen increasing polarization over the last decade, and the divide between parties becomes wider, more consequences are created. Studies have already found that Thanksgiving times have been found to be shortened due to political divide, polarization during elections leads to quality being less and less of a consideration, and polarization can make viewers distrust media with varying political views. Figuring out how political divide is created in the media and how it affects elections could play a crucial role in uniting the country and bringing trust back to the media.

by peter durand

By now, it is well known that climate change is causing ocean temperatures to rise. This has led to the bleaching and death of many coral reefs around the world. Coral reefs are one of the most diverse and ecologically important ecosystems on Earth and their conservation is vital to our oceans. But, climate change is also causing more extreme weather, which can cause colder temperatures around coral reefs. For my project, I plan to research what the effects of extreme cold are on coral reefs. My experiment will include setting up tanks where I can model this extreme weather and observe how multiple coral species react to the change in temperature. My goal is to collect data that accurately reflects the effects of colder temperatures on coral reefs around the world and data that can be easily interpreted by anyone trying to understand the importance of conservation of coral reefs.

by alexandra wyman

During my 4 years at LBHS I have taken a veterinarian tech classes and have heard many stories through my instructors about animals being turned away for getting proper care because of their species/breed. I plan to gather data from the general public and various doctors in clinics about their perceptions on these pets that have been turned away, and overcome these stereotypes for these pets and make sure they can all get the help they deserve.

By Gabrielle Denny

As Airbnb continues to affect the amount of customers that choose beach resorts and hotels, the unanswered question still remains: What are they doing different that is making them so successful to the point where customers choose Airbnb over beach resorts? This project lays out the reasons for the rise of the Airbnb platform, the opinions of real customers and their preferences, and the ways beach resorts and hotels can alter their environment and personalities to further attract customers. Through surveying, interviews, and research collecting, this project seeks to answer the major questions.

By Trent Ralston

The management styles used by different business most directly affects the employees work ethic in good ways and bad ways. To begin, there are hundreds of different management styles that result in a happy or unhappy employee. This paper will discuss the ways that managers treat their employees and how it most directly results in profits.

By Izzy Saunders

During my work, I plan on looking into the youth brands of fashion companies and how they attract audiences. My mentor, Iva Pawling will be connecting me with those youth brands and I will be gathering data on how they successfully develop an audience. Mostly, this data will be based on surveys from a list of youth companies I will be hand selecting. Collecting data on those will let me determine the successes and failures in fashion companies among the youth. These results could eventually help youth fashion companies around the world with their branding towards their specific audiences, speaking in a language that youth understands, and while also gaining inspiration from these examples and processes. 

By Aun Dabbas

Fashion has been developing and trending massively over the years which makes sense since it is the clothing that keeps one appropriate and protected. The vast industry of fashion made me realize that its importance on every individual is what makes it crucial to improve it in certain ways. I want to democratize fashion and revolutionize the whole procedure of clothing purchases.  My plan is to tackle and improve this field of fashion; by creating an online platform that provides a unique system which enables easier accessibility to purchase desired clothing presented on the platform. I want to make “having good style” an easy task by making fashion choices and outfits more accessible to the ones who believe fashion and style is only possible with high end brands. 

By Luke Teeple

This paper compares and contrasts how businesses grow and develop differently in the US and China. The primary lens will be from a purely economist-based perspective; however, when necessary cultural and political perspectives will be discussed to add background and/or when relevant. The focus of this paper will be on two companies and how these companies have grown and developed differently as a result of the economic systems present in the US and China. This paper will also discuss how these companies are reacting to the trade war.

By grace peterson

Studying the factors that prohibit teacher-student relationships from forming will greatly help educators and students understand what causes these bonds and what good comes from them. It is evident that students excel when they have a professional relationship with a teacher, but there are so many different things that prohibit these relationships to form. Many students say that a teacher-student relationship changes the student’s life forever, so the things that are stopping this must be significant. Researching the running thread between academic success and a friendship with a teacher is something that provides limitless information.

By nathan solomon

While modern American society has suggested to simply throw money at low performing schools, the country’s education system continues to remain in shambles as the educational disparity gap remains. The research conducted attempts to understand if the government's practices of issuing school grants has any effects on student outcomes and performances. The research project shall be carried out with the following strategy: 3 California districts given varying amounts of government-granted funding will be compared. Factors such as socioeconomic status, majority ethnicity, average household income, etc shall be controlled.

By Cole Normandin Parker

The goal is to study where students apply each year, take the data and show the ranking of each college and how many students apply each year from each school. Also, add in common data and different schools to show how there are many schools to apply to, other than for example the UCs and Ivy Leagues. 

By Madi Garwal

In this research paper I will be finding the effects and advantages of having new concussion testing technology on high school athletes. I will be using new concussion diagnosing technology to see if there are advantages to having a non-biased and quicker way to diagnose concussions in high school athletes. I will be trying to find if using this new test that uses eye-tracking effectively diagnoses concussions and if it works better than the current concussion testing and diagnosis process at my high school.

By Clara Becker

Veterinarians are at an increased risk for depression, veterinary offices are similar to an emergency rooms with the constant up and down of incoming patients. This experiment aims to prove that because of the extreme highs and lows of veterinary practices it puts the doctors at a higher risk of depression compared to the average citizen. To prove this the Vets will record how the feel after every visit on a one to five scale and also state the type of visit it was. The data will then prove that vets are at increased risk of depression because of the constant change of the severity of the animals being treated.

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ

This question is important to understanding the rising depression rate among teenagers in the U.S. due to an increase in marketing strategies masked by the usage of mainstream social media. Researching these industries and how they work will contrast the culture between teenagers now vs. those from the 90’s.  So far, there has been an increase of grunge aesthetic in modern teens as well as a high epidemic of drug use and decline in mental health. My research will find the answers as to how powerful the tools of commercialization are on teenagers today, leading to an unanswered question as to how dangerous the industry really is on younger generations.

By Abigail Amish and Julia Henry

Different types of prisons use many types of rehabilitation efforts for their prisoners. For example, private prisons are known for putting prisoners to work for below-minimum wage, and high-security prisons are less likely to have any sort of distinct rehabilitation efforts. Educational efforts and healthy living conditions in prisons have been shown to lower recidivism rates in low-security prisons, but this data could also be attributed to the lesser crimes committed by those prisoners. 

By Angelica Jorio

The research focuses on government operated homeless shelters versus non-profit operated homeless shelter. The city of Laguna Beach has had the first and longest city-run homeless shelter in Orange County, as well as a homeless shelter operated by Friendship Shelter NGO. Other cities in Orange County have shied away from the city or county operated homeless shelters because of high costs of running them. In substitution, cities leave it up to Nonprofits to help alleviate the problem. In some scenarios, non addressing the problem at all, dumbing their homeless in neighbouring cities. My research centers around the two types of homeless shelters, and, as a control, how cities without any type of alternative sleeping location have addressed homelessness. 

By Alex Coulolias

This paper articulates the ways in which the new coming of age virtual reality headsets are helping laborers working in factories or distribution centers are using virtual reality to learn how to operate machines. Through the use of devices such as the Oculus Rift, companies are now able to create a safer and faster work environment for the employees. By having workers train on machine simulations, stimulated through the use of virtual reality, companies are able to train their employees, and keep the cost of doing it low.

By Luke Gold-Sine and Weston Judd

This paper will explore the increasing problem of plastic waste in our oceans. More specifically, the process of how plastics break down in the ocean. Our research will attempt to provide a solution to prevent plastics from breaking down into microplastics. Microplastics should be considered a primary concern as they are harmful to zooplankton -- organisms that are necessary for a healthy food chain. Our research will include a controlled experiment involving plastic bags in several water tanks with various PH, salinity, and UV levels.

By Kian Trengove

I will be experimenting with different kinds of electrokinetic phenomena to see the differences in reliability, fidelity, and feasibility to manipulate different microplastics using electrokinetics. For example, it is known that some microplastics will aggregate with other particles such as sand in the ocean, which can be at least moved using electrophoresis, but not on a large enough scale to be feasibly implementable. The results of this research should also provide insight into the ability of electrokinetics to destroy or detect microplastics. 

By Henry Stewart

For my experiment, I plan on researching the California kelp forests. There are tide pools close to my house, so I have access to kelp that I can work with. I hope to implement an experiment where I record the density of kelp in different environmental factors such as depth, temperature, and sunlight and how it develops depending on where it is. I’ll watch how it grows, seeing where it flourishes and where it struggles to survive. I hope to learn what environment kelp thrives in in Laguna Beach.

In my research I want to learn about submarine propeller cavitation and use that knowledge to apply to altering the way industrial ship propellers make noise. Submarine propellers are known to have much lower cavitation and are made to move quietly. If this technology was applied to the current vessels producing the most noise in our oceans it would make a great impact on reducing noise pollution affecting marine mammals. 

By Jeremy hayes and finn van der baan

Due to climate change, the ocean’s temperatures have been rising at alarming rates, so we want to figure out how these changing temperatures will affect species living in our oceans. For our experiment, we plan on creating a closed system to manipulate ocean temperatures to test the rate at which Brittle sea stars legs regenerate. Our goal is to discover if the sea stars will regenerate limbs faster or slower and what their physical state is after completing the experiment. After discovering our findings, we plan on expanding our thinking into how this would affect brittle Sea Stars in their natural ecosystems and how their loss will affect the ecosystem around it.