Each student in this entourage from Heritage Elementary School won at least one award at the Alabama Science & Engineering Fair. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Numerous Madison students exercised their investigative aptitude at the Alabama Science & Engineering Fair.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville hosted the state science fair on April 3-5.

Five eighth-graders from Liberty Middle School qualified to compete. Science teachers Carla Beardslee and Amy Lyons are sponsors.

“My project is about the effectiveness of garlic in killing bacteria,” Jacob Kassama said. “I discovered that garlic was indeed effective.” Taylor N. Romanczuk’s project “was based on using a laser to try and find a way to measure the sugar concentration of a liquid.”

In her experiment, Sophie Guo “measured the accuracy of a cell phone spectrometer to a commercially available spectrometer to measure the wavelengths of different colors solutions.”

Liberty eighth-grader Andres Montoya studied “how light is transmitted and absorbed through different colored solutions and measuring the wavelengths using a cell phone spectrometer.”

“My project was about how plants defend themselves against nematode invasions,” Vijitha Kantety said.

At Heritage Elementary School, Mrinal Joshi sponsors the fifth-graders, and Beth Clemmons is sixth-grade science fair sponsor. “Every Heritage student who went to state-level science fair competition won an award of some sort,” Joshi said.

Fifth-graders Lauren Assaf and Emma Drake placed second in environmental science and the Broadcom Masters Junior Award. Gavin Johnson and John Busch earned fourth place in physical science.

In behavioral science, Caroline Bendickson placed fourth and also won a special award from the U.S. Army. Fifth-graders with honorable mentions are Jackson Lanier and Amanda Peterson, health and medical science, and Kassie Hileman, physics.

Heritage sixth-grader Brina Harden was first-place winner in chemistry and received a special award from The Boeing Company. Elizabeth Utley and Alyse Utley earned second place in physical science, along with the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge for junior outstanding project, the Greater Huntsville Rotary Club award and Broadcom Masters Junior Award.

Sarah Bryan captured fourth place in medical and health science. Jadon Sweat in physical science and Cory Hagood in environmental science earned honorable mentions.