THROW out the stilettos and invest in something with a chunkier heel if you want to avoid foot problems.

That's the advice of a seventh grade West Vancouver student whose project about shoe-heel height has won her a place in the national science fair in Ottawa later this month.

Claire Longcroft, a 12-year-old student at Collingwood school, won a gold medal in the category of health sciences at the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair at UBC on April 12.

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Collingwood student Claire Longcroft is travelling to Ottawa for the Canada-Wide Science Fair with her project on shoe-heel heights.

NEWS photo Paul McGrath

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"At first I didn't know what was really happening. After that, I felt overwhelmed," Longcroft said about receiving the news that she'd won the regional competition. Her older brother had competed at the regional science fair three times before, but has never made it to the national level.

Longcroft's project, entitled Are You Well Heeled?, looked at the proportional distribution of weight between toes and heels when a person is wearing different styles of shoes.

She got the idea after trying out high-heeled shoes for the first time, and learning how painful they can be.

"I'm Type I diabetic, and I learned that the foot is the slowest heeling thing in the body," Longcroft said. "That led me to ask if high heels make a difference."

To test the distribution of pressure between the toe and heels, Longcroft set up two digital scales side-by-side. She then donned six different styles of shoes, and compared the weight measurements on both scales, repeating 20 times per shoe for accuracy.

Shoes with wide toe blocks and large heel areas showed the most equal distribution of weight. Stiletto heels tend to concentrate pressure into a small area, which means pain in the heel and pressure on the toes.

Longcroft also researched foot problems that can be caused by the wrong shoes. She said they can cause hammer toes, corns, blisters and swollen nerve endings known as nueromas

The project took several weeks of experimenting to complete.

"Some people find it a lot of work, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a lot of fun," Longcroft said.

Although she is considering a future in the health sciences, Longcroft said that she still has plenty of time to change her mind. Until then, she has at least three years of school science fairs ahead of her.

More than 450 students from across the country will be competing at the Canada-Wide Science Fair at the University of Ottawa from May 10 to 18.

© North Shore News 2008