WRV Middle School students are scientifically proven champions
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
By Patti Danner, Staff Writer
White River Valley Middle School (WRVMS) seventh/eighth-grade science teacher Amy Coons, along with 28 budding student-scientists, traveled to the 34th Annual Team Crane Science Fair on March 21 and, along with several students from other Greene County schools, came back as scientifically-proven winners.
North Daviess, Linton-Stockton, Signature and Shoals High Schools, Jasper, WRV, Bloomfield, Shoals, Loogootee and Eastern Greene Middle Schools and homeschooled students entered a record 200 projects in this year’s Science Fair, an 18 percent increase from last year and a 47 percent increase from the 2016 event.
Awards were given in seven Junior Division categories, seven Senior Division categories, one overall top Junior and one overall top Senior category.
The majority of the Greene County students had never participated in a science fair before, but their projects outshone their relative inexperience as many went home with awards and cash prizes.
WRVMS students Shawnee Easterwood and Stormie Kilgore came home with a second-place win in the Chemistry Junior Division. Their project examined the effects of different drinks on human teeth. The two studied tea, coffee and Coca-Cola, measuring the effects of each beverage using eggshells as substitutes for teeth. The project proved that sugary-sweet beverages had the most negative effects on teeth, followed by tea and coffee.
In the very competitive Biology Junior Division, WRVMS students Jarin Shake and Patricia Solliday scored a first-place win with their project, which analyzed the relative cleanliness of shopping carts. The pair took samples from several local shopping centers, transferred the bacteria into sterile Petri dishes and analyzed the results, which were conclusive enough to urge Greene County residents not to go shopping without hand sanitizer.
“I am extremely proud of these kids for their participation and their accomplishments,” said WRV Middle School Interim Principal Jason Walton. “It is great to see them be so successful and this is just the beginning for many of them.”
Other Greene County winners in the 2018 Team Crane Science Fair:
•Biology, Junior Division: Kylee Tollett, Bloomfield Jr. High-Second Place
•Chemistry, Junior Division: Adalyn Wiseman, Bloomfield Jr. High-First Place
•Consumer Science, Junior Division: Genevieve Grav, Destiny Porter and Maddie Richards, Bloomfield Jr. High-First Place
• Environmental Science, Junior Division: Boone Holtsclaw and Miles Skomp, Bloomfield Jr. High-First Place
• Innovations, Junior Division: Adalyn Pyne, Linton Jr. High-Third Place
• Physics, Junior Division: Xavier Frank, Eastern Greene Jr. High-Third Place
•Behavioral Science, Senior Division: Alexis Anderson and Shaelynn McDonald, Linton High School-Second Place
• Chemistry, Senior Division: Harley Bailey, Linton High School-Second Place
• Consumer Science, Senior Division: Kayla Smock and Carson Brown, Linton High School-Second Place
Special Awards:
• Association of Old Crows Honorable Mention Award: Boone Holtsclaw and Miles Skomp – Bloomfield Jr. High