Morgan Wall/The News
Students check-in at the front table to get information about set-up and their room number for the Surry County Schools science fair Thursday afternoon at Meadowview Middle School.
Morgan Wall/The News
Surry County Schools students vie for trophies, ribbons and a chance to advance to the regional competition at the county science fair.
Morgan Wall/The News
Parents of elementary students gather in the cafeteria before they are asked to leave so judging can begin.
Morgan Wall/The News
Elementary students chat with each other to allay some of the nerves before the judging starts at the Surry County Schools science fair.
Morgan Wall
Staff Reporter
From worms to baby chicks, the field at the Surry County Schools science fair Thursday afternoon was diverse.
School level winners gathered at Meadowview Middle School for the county-wide competition and a chance to advance to the regional fair. This year, 121 students competed with 91 projects in elementary, middle and high school levels. Even with that many projects, judging moved along at a fast clip with more judges helping out than ever before. This time, 44 judges agreed to help out with the event. Several were repeat judges while for others this was their first experience.
Joe Jackson, a local physician, has helped judge the fair for years and has an even longer history with science fairs prior to that.
“I’ve been doing this for years and I was a science fair entrant myself so I always enjoy it,” he said.
Kim White, Mike Miller, Mae Daniels and Laura Bracken all experienced their first Surry County Schools science fair this year.
“This is something new and I’m looking forward to it,” said White, who works in the Surry Community College computer science department.
“I’m looking forward to this. I’ve been looking through the packet here and it should be exciting to see what the students have done,” said Miller, dean of business, technologies and health sciences at SCC.
Bracken, who is the director of disability services at SCC, said she enjoys doing anything that helps the community while Daniels, an area pediatrician, said she was looking forward to seeing what the students had.
While the first-time judges were excited to see what the students of Surry County came up with, the students were a little nervous to have to present their experiments to a group of adults.
“It was nerve-wracking. I was the first person judged and this is my first year so it was scary,” said Kimberly Lawson, a junior at East Surry High School, who competed in the biology division with a project entitled Plants vs. Music. She decided to test the effect of bi-normal beats and perfect octaves on plant life. “I had to do a project for my chemistry teacher and it had to be something that was measurable. Being a band geek, I wanted to do something with music.”
Sarryn Meyer, a sixth-grader at Central Middle School, is becoming a professional at the county science fair as this was her third year competing.
“It’s fun because you get to do different experiments and it’s nerve-wracking because you’re wondering if you’re going to win,” she said.
Students got the ideas for their projects from different places. Some relied on family members for the initial idea before adding their own twists, others took the Internet for ideas and other still looked in books.
Wes Bruner, a seventh-grader from Pilot Mountain Middle School, got the idea for his experiment on the Internet. He decided to see how different types and colors of paint are affected by hot and cold temperatures.
“We went on the Internet and looked at the titles of people who had done projects. This one sounded interesting,” said Bruner. “I liked doing experiments and figuring things out.”
Dasia Lambert, a third-grader at Westfield Elementary School, decided to look in books for ideas for her project on reaction time.
“Reaction times is the time it takes you to react to a stimulus,” she said. “It was interesting to me because I didn’t know what reaction was but I wanted to find out.”
This year’s elementary level winners include: first place, Landon Gregory Smith, third-grader from Pilot Mountain Elementary School, with a project entitled “Focus on the four lane;” second place, Evann Marie Shelnutt, fifth-grader from Cedar Ridge Elementary School, with a project entitled “Discovering Lead Poisoning,” and Jacee Busick, a fourth-grader at Franklin Elementary School, with a project entitled “Rocketology;” third place, Troy Castro, fourth-grader from Copeland Elementary School, with a project entitled “Which soil drains best?” and Laney Cave, third-grader at Rockford Elementary School, with a project entitled “Containers effects on bananas;” fourth place, Dasia Lambert, third-grader at Westfield Elementary School, with a project entitled “Reaction time.”
This year’s middle school level winners in the biological sciences for humans and animals are: first place, Kaitlin Cave, Kaelyn Heath and Sydney Heath, sixth-graders at Central Middle School, with a project entitled “Which zit cream zaps zits the fastest?”; second place, Kenley Winesett, seventh-grader at Meadowview Middle School, with a project entitled “Do chicks like music?”; third place, Jonathan Dalton, sixth-grader at Gentry Middle School, with a project entitled “The virtual reality;” and fourth place, Tor Tonnesen, seventh-grader at Gentry Middle School, with a project entitled “Washed out trout.”
This year’s middle school level winners in the biological sciences for plants division are: first place, Bo Gilley and Cole Akers, seventh-graders at Pilot Mountain Middle School, with a project entitled “Music and plant growth; Jessica Gates and Megan Pleimann, seventh-graders at Pilot Mountain Middle School, with a project entitled “Which soil grows plants fastest?”; third place, Sarryn Meyer, sixth-grader at Central Middle School, with a project entitled “Liquid gas;” and fourth place, Marissa Mabe, seventh-grader at Gentry Middle School, with a project entitled “Caffeinated plants.”
This year’s middle school level winners in the chemistry division are: first place, Justin Busick, eighth-grader at Meadowview Middle School, with a project entitled “Rocketology;” second place, Emma Carter, sixth-grader at Central Middle School, with a project entitled “Kill those germs;” third place, Payton Casstevens, sixth-grader at Gentry Middle School, with a project entitled “Which milk curdles faster?”; and fourth place, Wes Bruner and Adam Burke, seventh-graders at Pilot Mountain Middle School, with a project entitled “How is paint affected by different temperatures?”
This year’s middle school level winners in the physics division are: first place, Barrett Slate and John Smith, eighth-graders at Meadowview Middle School, with a project entitled, “Veggie volts;” second place, Savannah Key, sixth-grader at Central Middle School, with a project entitled “Do opposites attract?”; third place, Seth Llewellyn, eighth-grader at Meadowview Middle School, with a project entitled, “Fold or roll?”; and fourth place, Martha Holt, sixth-grader at Gentry Middle School, with a project entitled “Spin speed.”
This year’s middle school level winners in the earth and environmental division are: Edi Nixon, sixth-grader at Central Middle School, with a project entitled “Dirty water? Clean it up!”; second place, Justin Angel, eighth-grader at Meadowview Middle School, with a project entitled “PH - Acid rain;” third place, Meagan Johnson, seventh-grader at Central Middle School, with a project entitled “Fabric filters;” and fourth place, Ashlyn Nagel, seventh-grader at Pilot Mountain Middle School, with a project entitled “Tree rings.”
This year’s middle school level winners in the technology and engineering division are: first place, Timothy Draughn, eighth-grader at Central Middle School, with a project entitled “Best value for popcorn;” second place, Ariel Kulsziski, seventh-grader at Pilot Mountain Middle School, with a project entitled “Absorbing money;” and third place, Seth Bolinger, seventh-grader at Pilot Mountain Middle School, with a project entitled “Do cell phones effect your brain?”
This year’s high school level winners in the biological sciences for humans and animals division are: first place, McCayla Creed, ninth-grader at Surry Central High School, with a project entitled “Eliminating the stroop effect;” second place, Lauren Henderson and Brittany Mauck, 11th-graders at Surry Early College High School of Design, with a project entitled “Big bang;” third place, Brittany Kirby, 10th-grader at North Surry High School, with a project entitled “Which is your dominant side?”; and fourth place, Brooke Bowman, 11th-grader at East Surry High School, with a project entitled “Which softball activity works your heart most?”
This year’s high school level winners in the biological sciences for plants division are: first place, Kimberly Lawson, 11th-grader at East Surry High School, with a project entitled “Plants vs. music;” second place, Karie McLamb, Erandi Reyes and Emma Mooney, 12th-graders at Surry Central High School, with a project entitled “What you seed is what you get.”
This year’s high school level winners in the chemistry division are: first place, Ryan High and Saul Hernandez, 12th-graders at Surry Central High School, with a project entitled “Can you feel the heat?”; second place, Samuel Holder and Malea Gwyn, 10th-graders at North Surry High School, with a project entitled “How far can a Sharpie go;” third place, Cassidy Hyde and Brandon Key, 10th- and 11th-graders from Surry Central High School, with a project entitled “Solar powered energy;” and fourth place, Abby Combs, 11th-grader from North Surry High School, with a project entitled “Perfume evaporations.”
This year’s high school level winners in the physics division are: first place, Austin Johnson, 11th-grader from East Surry High School, with a project entitled “Up on the rooftop;” second place, Katie Chandler and Jazzmyn Pugh, 11th-graders at North Surry High School, with a project entitled “Bounce back;” third place, Alexis Senter and Ashley Craddock, 10th-graders at Surry Central High School, with a project entitled “Flying objects;” and Maddie Heffner, 10th-grader at East Surry High School, with a project entitled “Catching some rays.”
This year’s high school level winners in the earth and environmental division are: first place, Janet Snow, ninth-grader at Surry Early College High School of Design, with a project entitled “The effect of water erosion;” second place, Lindsay Badgett, 10th-grader at East Surry High School, with a project entitled “The population problem;” and third place, Shayla Hall and Josie Baldwin, 11th-graders at North Surry High School, with a project entitled “It’s electrofying.”
This year’s high school level winners in the technology and engineering division are: first place, Andrew Kozlow, ninth-grader at East Surry High School, with a project entitled “Electric vs. diesel and gasoline motors;” second place, Sara Richardson, 10th-grader at North Surry High School, with a project entitled “Is an inch an inch?”; and third place, Lauren Thompson, 11th-grader at East Surry High School, with a project entitled “Shaping your thoughts.”
Reach Morgan Wall at mwall@heartlandpublications.com or 719-1929.
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