By Diane Glidewell
dglidewell@jacksonprogress-argus.com

As every student and parent at Henderson Middle School is well aware, the process of creating science projects for the annual Science Fair began in November. The stress of finding a topic, conducting research, carefully performing experiments and recording data, constructing an attractive display of the results, and getting the project to school culminated in hundreds of completed projects filling the commons area of Henderson Middle School on the evening of Thursday, January 21.

All students were required to complete a project in their science classes; competition was between students of each grade level. Some sixth grade students worked in groups on their projects. The seventh and eighth graders worked in class on finding a project, researching it, and organizing their log books but were expected to conduct the experiment and create a display of the data at home.

Winners were announced in the HMS Tiger Theatre: For 8th grade, Hunter Hargis and Kyle Dixon, 1st; Josie Gregg, 2nd; Jacob Brand, 3rd. For 7th grade, Herston Hall, 1st; Krista Martinez, 2nd; Olivia Garcia, 3rd. For 6th grade, Lyana White, 1st; Alan Powell, 2nd; Caleb Johnson, 3rd.

Receiving Honorable Mention ribbons were Megan Conley, Taylor Drake, Tyler Walker and Heather Pollard, Alex Harwell, Aungelic Hughes and Lauren Grotto, Jared Smith, Trent Ashmore, Aatif Ahmed, Anslie Ballew, Garrett Collins, Coleman Conner, Megan Horne.

All of the winners, including those receiving Honorable Mention awards, will compete in the district Science Fair in Griffin on Friday, February 26. The district competition, which is held at the University of Georgia facility, is an all-day event. The participants set up their projects, attend science workshops, break for lunch, are interviewed by judges about their projects, and then attend the awards ceremony at 4 p.m. to learn the results. District winners move on to the State Science Fair which will be a three-day event at the University of Georgia main campus in Athens March 31 - April 3.

“These are good projects; many are related to concepts the students have learned in class,” said Eighth grade science teacher Saleha Ahmed, who coordinated the HMS Science Fair. “The Science Fair is possible because of community support. We especially thank the Rotary Club for providing trophies and refreshments.”

Mrs. Ahmed also praised the hard work of the other science teachers: Ms. Edgin, Ms. Castillo, Ms. Payne, Mr. Rigsby, Ms. Fowler, Ms. Grooms, and Ms. Scott.