Dora students share knowledge

DORA — Knowledge hung thick in the air Monday and Tuesday as students at Dora Consolidated Schools put their brains to work for a science fair.

Sixth-graders Lane Faver and Conner Rooney, whose project tested the antimicrobial properties of certain metals, were among several other members of their class who combined creativity and ingenuity to impress judges that included school staff, community members, and Eastern New Mexico University Professors.

"We saw it on the news, where this girl helped her friend by doing something with copper, so I was thinking, 'I'm going to take this a bit farther,' so I asked Lane and Jaeden (Hays, also a member of the group) over there if they would help me, and they said yeah. We started thinking about stuff, and came up to this," Rooney, 12, said of the project's conception.

Faver, also 12, said his group learned silver was the most efficient killer of bacteria. He added that being in the science fair with his friends made the experience sweeter.

Katelyn Kichura, 11, and Abigail Fulfer, 12, conceived of their project with a practical purpose in mind.

"Our project was, since New Mexico has so many tumbleweeds around, we were thinking maybe we could put it into something, so we got a muffin pan and we put tumbleweeds in it," Kichura said, "and we put wax in it and made little pellets for pellet-burning stoves, so we could save trees but get rid of tumbleweeds."

The two young women found that their pellets were an effective way of protecting trees from becoming firewood while reducing tumbleweeds, and learned the value of making scientific discoveries.

"I like how you discover things. I just like how you get to try new things," Kichura said.

"You may not always be right, but it still is a good discovery," added Fulfer.

Chantelle Simpson, 12, tested antibacterial surfaces with her group in order to provide an alternative to Lysol disinfectant.

"Bacteria is building an immune system against Lysol. Lysol is almost 100 years old. It was made in the 1920s, so we wanted to create something that we could place with hospital surfaces," said Simpson, adding that the experiment helped her develop an appreciation for science.

"At first I didn't really like science. I really want to do some more now. I hadn't really done anything I really liked, but now I'm interested. I guess I just like experimenting with stuff," she said.

Science teacher Laura Wilbanks, who coordinated the fair, cited it as a unique event in the public school environment.

"I think it is one of the times in school these days where students get to choose their own topics and their own passions and really explore it at a deep level. A lot of time, topics are studied at school, but studied very surface level, and this allows them to delve deeper, and especially delve deeper into something they personally care about," she said.

Results for the science fair will appear in Friday's edition.