(CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Fifth- and sixth-graders applied the scientific method from class to individual projects of their own interest and design at Horizon Elementary School.

“We had our best participation ever this year with almost 200 students,” coordinator and enrichment specialist Beth Bero said. Dr. Lauren Harrison and Amara Alexander, fifth- and sixth-grade science teachers, respectively, have worked with their students on projects since September.

Fourteen judges, who are community volunteers with degrees in science or education, presided for both grades.

Fifth-grader Graham Pethel built a water lens to start a fire to heat water. He was surprised to learn that water could serve as a heat source. Pethel believes the setup could have useful application in third-world countries.

Grace Hannah, another fifth-grader, created “gray water” using different types of hand soap and tested its usefulness in watering plants. Hannah wanted to learn if she could re-purpose lightly polluted gray water as yard water, conserving both clean water and energy for cleaning it.

Other top fifth-graders were Scott Reid, “Golf Ball Performance”; Adonye Belay, “Wind Turbine”; Maddie Dougherty, “Another Broken Egg”; Isaac Rinehart, “Conduction of Electricity”; Alec Mothersele, “Drone Motivation”; and Abbigail Jackson, “Geology of Rainbow Mountain.”

Sixth-grader Sam Maynard compared weather reports from all area stations and the Internet to determine the most accurate forecasts. Emilee Lamps built and tested her own hula-hoops to see the effect of increased weight on performance.

Sixth-graders with top projects were Nicholas Bowerman, Graham Jones, Joshua Marion, Nicholas Capizzo, Rory House, Kalli House, Yunona Shiblokinov, Camille Walters, Nathan Windham, Ryan Farmer, Emily Franklin, William Spaniard, Ben Creekmore and Abigail League.

“The North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair allows eight fifth-grade and 16 sixth-grade students from each school to participate,” Bero said. “Those 24 students all receive blue ribbons at Horizon.”

Horizon teachers place projects in categories for regional competition.

For fifth-grade, categories are behavioral and social science, biological science, environmental science and physical science. Sixth-graders enter in physical, environmental, engineering and chemistry categories.