The new frontiers of science
Watauga County ‘middle

schoolers’ compete

in Science Fair
By Jeff Eason
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO FROM THE SCIENCE FAIR

Anyone who is familiar with the Watauga County school system knows that we don’t have any middle schools or junior high schools. Instead, kids attend their local elementary school through the eighth-grade and then move on to Watauga High School at the start of their freshman year.

That unique situation doesn’t prevent them from participating in normal middle school activities, however, as the school system works hard to give sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders a true “middle school” experience.

One such experience for students of that age is the chance to participate in the annual countywide Science Fair. Students from all over the county brought their science projects to the Boone Mall last Thursday to vie for top honors in the Biological, Earth, Physical and Technological science categories.

For more than two hours, a panel of judges interviewed the students about their projects before selecting the top entries in each category. The judges included high school science teachers, retired Appalachian State professors and community members with science backgrounds.

“I am very pleased with this year’s science fair,” said Meredith Jones, 6-8 curriculum specialist for Watauga County schools. “The variety and quality of the projects that came to the fair was very impressive. The students all had outstanding projects, which is truly a tribute to the excellent job done by the teachers in our school system.”

The winners of the Biological category were Matias Horst and Tanner Sciara with their project “Plants and Electricity: Is the Outcome More Oxygen for our Planet?”

Emily Burwell came in second place with her project “Room to Grow,” while Margaret Brown came in third with “Balance.”

Honorable mention winners in the Biological category were Ledah Finck with “Do Earthworms Help Plants Grow?” and Christopher Lowder and William Bushman with “Don’t Trust the Label … Stick to the Fats.”

The winner of the Earth category was Willa Finck with her project “Water Quality.” Avery Pitts came in second place with the project “How Hard is Your Water?,” while Devin Windelspecht came in third with “The Fight for Underwater Life.”

Honorable mention winners in the Earth category were Dakota Bauer with “Got Magma?” and Jennifer Devirgiliis with “How Does Salt Water Affect Plant Growth?”

The winner of the Physical category was Zach Brown with his project “How Sweet It Is (How Sweet Is It?).”

Laura Gulliver came in second with her project “Does the Amount of Pulleys Affect How Much Work Needs to Be Done to Lift Objects?,” while Lydia Mauney came in third with “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, Oh What a Reaction It Is!”

Honorable mention winners in the Physical category were Dan Gryder with “Density and Strength of Concrete” and Doria Kosmalla with “A Ghostly Force.”

The winner of the Technological category was Anel Cardona with her project “Green Ways to Charge an iPod.”

Jackson Yates came in second place with his project “Electricity Use,” while Noah Becker and Chris Grubbs came in third with “How Does the Thickness of the Hovercraft Affect Its Lift?”

Honorable mention winners in the Technological category were Brice Adams with “Truss Bridge Capacity,” and Nathan Bolick and Stephen Hampton with “Which Arrow Will Penetrate the Deepest.”

“I tried to find out whether habited or uninhabited places on the Watauga River were more polluted,” said Earth category winner Willa Finck. “I started with the hypothesis that where there were more people, there would be more pollution. But I found out that things like flooding made a bigger difference for smaller organisms.”

Jordan Pope and Brian Grimes looked to one of their favorite spectator sports when conceiving their project. Their project involved a hair drier and model race cars to study air flow.

“We wanted to study the concept of cars drafting each other the way they do to get an advantage in NASCAR racing,” said Grimes. “We found out that it works.”