During the third quarter, sixth grade students were asked to create a science fair project based on personal interest. Ideas ranged widely, from how much bacteria is in a dog’s mouth, to comparing plant and animal DNA.
All aspects of the project were completed at school and three scientists from the community acted as judges. Based on their scores, twenty-five students were selected to compete at the State Science Fair. They were Corey Blanks, Emily Bakhaus, Catherine Borden, Forrest Chow, Murray Dorn, Anna Eaddy, Carol Ehreth, Ryan Fiedler, Jonathan Friedman, Hugh Gooding, Ben Horst, Caroline Hubbard, Devon Kilgore, Madelon Kneece, Claire Lopatka, John Magradey, Mimi Marshall, Ellis Reese Gabbie Rhinehart, Alex Rice, Jackie Rice, Matthew Shuler, Emily Swan, Margaret Thomas, and Emily Wassermann.
After a full day of presentations and competition, these students were invited to attend a special awards ceremony at the Koger Center on April 4, 2006. At that ceremony, Corey Blanks, Ryan Fiedler, Gabbie Rhinehart, Jonathan Friedman, Emily Wassermann, John Magradey and Forrest Chow were presented with awards.
Of the 15 statewide “Best 6th Grade Projects” 5 were the accomplishments of Hammond students. Ryan Fiedler place third in the state and Gabbie Rhinehart place first.
Gabbie Rhinehart, Ryan Fiedler and Emily Wassermann were nominated by the State Science Fair officials to compete in the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge that will be held in late October of 2006. This national competition will be held in Washington, D.C.
All of the sixth graders learned a great deal from this challenging experience, and all were the declared “winners.”
