Young scientists qualify for Academy event

Sunday, April 8, 2007

SIKESTON -- Two Sikeston Public Schools students will compete at the state level in a science project competition.

Taylor Renfroe, a 9th grade student at Sikeston Junior High School, and Kristin King, who is in 7th grade at the Sikeston Middle School, both qualified for the State Junior Academy of Science competition to be held April 20 at Western University in St. Joseph.

"Junior Academy of Science at the district level is for students grades 7-12 and it is an oral presentation of their Science Fair project," said Marilyn Lambert, chair of the Junior High's science department. "It is a separate competition from the Regional Science Fair."

While it is held at the same place and during the same time as the Regional Science Fair, only those students who receive a ribbon at their local science fair are eligible for the Junior Academy of Science competition, according to Lambert.

"That designates their project as having been done very well," she said. "We know they have superior projects."

Students make an oral presentation for a panel of two or three judges who give them a rating of 1, 2 or 3.

"Only the 1s advance," Lambert said. "We're very fortunate to have two from our schools that received 1s. We're very proud of them and they worked very hard."

Both Renfroe and King prepared PowerPoint presentations to enhance their oral presentations.

"They both did just a fantastic job of presenting the projects," Lambert said.

Renfroe's project "is about reaction time and if it is affected by talking on the cell phone," according to Lambert. "She has a really neat project -- a really timely project."

Andrea Harper, chair of the Sikeston Middle School science department, said they are very proud of King as this is the first time they have had a junior division student receive a 1 rating.

"Her project was, 'Does the color of light affect plant growth?' which is a pretty general science project, but she kind of went above and beyond," Harper said. "She built a box where the plants could not receive any light except the colored light."

Winners of the State Junior Academy of Science competition will be announced at an awards banquet April 21.

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