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China Spring Middle School students take home state science awards

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Posted at 6:03 PM, Apr 12, 2021
and last updated 2021-04-12 19:03:40-04

CHINA SPRING, TX — Over the weekend, a group of local middle schoolers brought home some impressive hardware form the Texas Science and Engineering Fair.

The Texas Science and Engineering Fair is a statewide competition for students across a variety of categories in engineering, biological sciences and physical sciences.

Four students from the China Spring Middle School Science Club are celebrating the huge achievement.

"There was a whole lot of celebration and screaming and yelling and it was a really great time," China Spring science teacher Rachel Stolle said.

The four students competing in three categories at this year's Texas Science and Engineering Fair brought home a second-place finish, two first place finishes and an honorable mention in the overall category.

"I was really happy to be honest. I was just glad to know that all these couple months that I'd worked on this project had paid off," seventh grader Justin Huff said.

Justin Huff's look into the thermodynamics of different kinds of paint earned him the honorable mention award in the overall category.

"All of the other paints went from 62 to 63 faster than eggshell so it got up there slower which would mean that if you were painting an actual house that would mean that you would be able to keep the inside of the house cooler for longer," Huff said.

Madeleine Mack took home first place in the microbiology category, examining the healthiest way to preserve meat using oil -- a project she actually began last year and expanded upon this year.

"There was just a piece of meat in our refrigerator, and it rotted, so I wanted to see could a household substance preserve the meat better," she said.

Madeleine was able to get in contact with major companies like Sanderson Farms and Food Safety Net Services to learn and work with them on the project.

"I miraculously was able to get to them and reach them from a 1-800 number. I worked all the way up from customer service to the lab manager and they introduced me to the company they contract," Mack said.

Raeleigh Stolle and Ariel Asare developed an app to cross reference and identify unknown allergens in people. Their project took second place in the systems software category.

"I think one of our next steps is to put it into the app store," Raeleigh Stolle said.

It shows how these young scientists are hoping an idea can not only win awards, but help change the future.

Each of the projects will now be submitted into a national competition where the top 300 presentations will be selected and honored.

Those winners will be announced in September.