Middle and High School students within the Henry County School System recently had an opportunity to show off their brilliant ideas and research at the 2020 Henry County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, where the students participated in a regional science competition.

  The fair is affiliated with the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair and the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, which allows private and homeschool organizations within the area to place students in the competition.

  Students that participate in the fair are placed into two different divisions based on grade level. The Junior Division is for grades six through eight and the Senior Division is for grades nine through twelve.

  “This year, in our Junior Division, we have the Adaptive Curriculum Students from Dutchtown Middle School, which is a class of autistic students,” said Kaneice Bembry, Coordinator of Science for Henry County Schools. “We actually assigned one of our Professional Learning Specialists from our department to communicate with those students about their projects through symbols, colors and numbers, because they are all non-verbal. It was absolutely awesome.”

  At the start of the school year in August, the students begin brainstorming ideas for their science fair projects, conducting research and turning their ideas into reality, while also working closely with teacher mentors.

  Combining techniques learned in their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curricula, the students completed projects for panelists to judge in 22 different categories.

  The categories include Animal Sciences, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Biochemistry, Bio-medical and Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Embedded Systems, Energy: Chemical, Energy: Physical, Engineering Mechanics, Environmental Engineering, Materials Science, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics and Astronomy, Plant Sciences, Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Systems Software, and Translational Medical Sciences.

  “This fair allows students to actually engage in scientific research or engineering design based on something that they are interested in,” Bembry said. “If students are interested, they tend to do better. They also can foster their 21st century skills in collaboration and creativity.”

  The Senior Division Exhibition took place Wednesday, January 22,  where a total of 88 projects were displayed.

   The Junior Division Exhibition took place Thursday, January 23, where 71 projects were displayed.

  On both days, students gathered to present their projects to judges, sharing the work they researched, as well as answering any questions the judges may have about their projects.

  From there, the judges grade the students’ projects on a number of criteria, to include: Research Question or Research Problem, Design and Methodology, Execution: Data Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation (Scientific Re-search), Execution: Construction and Testing (Engineering Design), Creativity, and Presentation /Interview.

  The winners of the 2020 Henry Regional Science and Engineering Fair were announced Tuesday, January 28 at the Junior and Senior Division Awards Ceremony at the Henry County Performing Arts Center.

  Eighteen students from the Senior Division were chosen to advance to the next level and are designated as ‘top competitors.’ They will travel to the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair (GSEF) in Athens this March.

  The Grand Prize Award, presented to the top three projects in the Senior Division, includes the opportunity to exhibit their projects at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held each May in California.

  “At ISEF, they are competing with students from various countries and territories. Our students tend to do very well when they advance,” she said. “There are $4 million worth of prizes at stake. One of our [past] students got a full ride scholarship to college.”

  The three students that won the 2020 Grand Prize Award are Eres David, from Eagle’s Landing High School who presented on ‘Cows & Kitchen Scraps: Year Two – Pigs vs. Cows in Biogas Production;’ Rebekah Dorminy from Sola Fide Homeschool, who presented on a ‘Collision Alert Device for Sensing Potentially Harmful Foot Impacts;’ and  Asha Gopu from Eagle’s Landing High School, who presented on ‘A Pathological Voice Analysis to Detect Parkinson’s Disease.’

  Past students that have competed in the Henry County Regional Science and Engineering Fair have pursued degrees in the STEM field at notable colleges, to include Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Georgia and California Institute of Technology, to name a few.

   The Georgia Science and Engineering Fair (GSEF) will take place on March 26-28 in Athens, GA.

  For a full list of awarded students and to see a listing of their Science Fair projects, visit https://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/Page/79010.