Eighty-two science fair projects lined tables at the Mancos Middle School last week for inspection by students and judges.
"A lot of kids today are nervous. They worked really hard on their projects," said science teacher Kelly Gregory of the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students who participated in the Mancos Middle School Science Fair.
"This is really hard for students to do," she said.
There were also some fifth-grade projects on display.
Sixth-grader Nevaeh Sena stood in front of her project wringing her hands, waiting for a judge to ask her questions.
"I'm a little nervous," she said.
Sena's project involved dissolving an egg shell with vinegar.
Eighth-grader Kensey Switzer designed her project around genetics.
"I'm really interested in genetics," she said. "I was trying to figure out if my family has dominant genes."
She utilized PTC paper, which tastes bitter if you have a dominant gene and tastes like nothing if you have a recessive gene.
"I'm dominant," she said. "Most of my family is dominant."
Eighth-grader Andrea Chavez said her project proved that her mom would have better luck if she used fertilizer when growing her corn.
"My mom really likes to grow corn. I wanted to help her grow corn better and faster," Chavez said.
One student dyed horse food different colors and found that horses apparently don't prefer one. Another student built a "stomach" to find which painkiller dissolved fastest. It was aspirin.
Brayden Blevin built a robot that can pick things up.
Emily Cole, Morgan Rose and Taeylor Samora looked at solving a real-life problem with their project - how to keep cows inside fencing.
"It's really expensive to lose a cow because of fencing," Cole said.
So the girls set out to find out which fence post would hold the most weight.
"We predicted a cedar post would hold the most weight," Samora said.
And after building a complex pulley system, the girls found out their hypothesis was right.
"Ranchers should use cedar fence posts," Rose said.
Dave Nulton, a community judge at the fair and a retired nuclear engineer, said he always enjoys judging the Mancos Science Fair.
"This is one of the better fairs," he said.
Nulton said he always learns a thing or two.
"A sixth-grader did a project on leaves to see if she could get them to root. She did. I didn't know you could do that," he said.
Regional science fair qualifiers
Sixth grade: Ty Everett, Erik Wyman, Lizzy White, Kateland Bright, Tia Imel, Nayomi Cruz and Lizzy Thomas.
Seventh grade: Colt Spencer, Emmalee Asnicar, Brianna Walker, Matti Dominguez, Andrea Sena, Caden Showalter, Anthony Medina, Brayden Blevins, David Messier, Mikaela Moores, Sage Franks, Kasey Wallace, Nic Baikie, Talissa Bahr and Andrew Ruatti.
Eighth grade: Tyler Howerton; the team of Ericka Peacock and Sarah Skinner; the team of Morgan Rose, Emily Cole and Taeylor Samora; Kyla Chamberlain; the team of Jake Skinner, Chance Garcia and Caden Galloway; Kensey Switzer.
Student Choice: Andrea Sena.
*The Regional Science Fair is March 5 in Durango
