Over the course of the 2014-15 school year, numerous Cortez Middle School students have toiled in classrooms and at home and created science projects of the highest quality.
Now, thanks to that hard work, 11 talented students have qualified for the 60th Annual Colorado Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held at Colorado State University, April 9-11.
“We had 250 students work on projects this year,” said CMS science teacher Gary Livick. “Our teachers made a concerted effort to focus on science fair. We all gave a little class time for it and I think that made a big difference.
To qualify for the Colorado state fair, students had to first place well at the CMS science fair, which was held in Cortez on Jan. 15.
Forty-nine of the 181 projects presented at the CMS fair were selected to move on to the regional fair, which was held in Durango on March 5. Of those 49 projects, five individual projects, and two team projects placed in the top-three and advanced to state.
“This was our best year,” said Livick. “The most students that I ever remember qualifying for state prior to this year were three or four.”
Among the students that qualified for state were 6th graders Emma Jones, Samantha King and Aubree Sharp, whose project examining whether bacteria found on the leaves of bean plants aided in the growth of wheat grass placed first overall in the team category.
“We took bacteria from a bean plant and we soaked that in water,” Jones said. “We put that water on wheat grass and we put other types of water on the grass and we measured which water would create the healthiest grass.”
Jones, King and Sharp found that the water containing bacteria from the bean plants did aid in the grass’s growth and all three students expressed satisfaction with their project’s results.
“I wanted to find a chemical substance that was all natural and would keep my lawn green and healthy and we did that,” said King.
“(Our project) required a lot of teamwork and I think it made us better friends,” added Sharp.
Other students qualifying for state included Kayden Peabody, who placed first in the Energy and Transportation category, Halle Carver, who placed first in the Health Science category, Dimery Plewe, who placed second in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category, Mandy McAfee, who placed second in the Energy and Transportation category and Kale Hall, who placed third in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category.
Noah Rainer and Megan Harmon also earned a trip to state by placing third in the team category.
“It took a lot of community support to put on our fair here and we’ve had about 20 high school honors students come over and help,” Livick said. “Every Friday, we were soldering, wiring planting, mixing fertilizer and wiring solar panels.”
Individuals and teams that place at the top of the state science fair will advance to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa., May 10-15.
“Competition at the state fair is always tough,” said Livick. “We’ve never had a student from CMS advance to the International Science fair, but we’re going to go to state, have fun and see what happens.”
