Fall-Winter 2024-25
8th Graders Invent Eco-friendly Sunscreen
8th Graders Invent Eco-friendly Sunscreen
As part of their FIRST LEGO League project, a group of USM Middle School students needed to identify and research a problem that correlated with this year’s theme of exploring the oceans. After considering several potential projects, Sam Yuan ’29 presented his teammates with the idea to create a non-toxic sunscreen. “I was reading about certain sunscreens that were banned in Australia because their chemicals damaged coral reefs, and I thought it could be a great research problem for our innovation project.”
Licensed aesthetician, Caitlin Catarozoli, pointed them in the direction of natural ingredients, like raspberry seed oil and carrot seed oil, that contain SPF. They then used an innovative tool to help refine their formula and production method—ChatGPT. After many hours of research and planning, the team began production by heating and mixing some of the oils together using a hot plate and magnetic stirrer. They were initially thrown off by the initial appearance, but the formulation thickened up after adding zinc oxide and began to resemble sunscreen.
In addition to the sunscreen, the team also had to design, build, and code a robot capable of completing missions and competing against robots from other FIRST teams across the region. After winning performances at regional and sectional competitions, the group took 1st place at the state competition in January 2025 and won the Championship Award. They are headed to the championship competition in Houston in April.
The team is committed to continuing their work on the sunscreen in the months ahead, and are even in the preliminary stages of pursuing a chemical patent application with a pro-bono lawyer. “This project was a lot of work, but we all contributed and learned a lot,” said Raphael.
Read more at www.usm.org/sunscreen.
- On Campus
Sam Yuan ’29 had the initial idea for creating a non-toxic sunscreen. “I’m a part of the albinism community, so I’m really susceptible to skin cancer,” Yuan said. After reading about how certain chemicals in sunscreens damage coral reefs, he thought it could be a great problem to tackle. Pictured, from left Ben Raphael ’30, Yuan, Viraj Kamath ’29, and Sophie Kouklin ’29.
Sophie Kouklin ’29 also developed material for an eco-friendly sunscreen bottle made of glycerol, corn starch, water, and vinegar, which is hard like plastic but decomposes into biodegradable glucose.
When the team began production of the sunscreen they were thrown off by the initial appearance. “It looked like melted butter,” said Kamath (pictured above). After adding zinc oxide, however, the ingredients thickened up and began to resemble sunscreen.