2010 science fair winners

March 12, 2010 4:30 PM

Beau Yarbrough

Staff Writer

Science fair winners from across the Hesperia Unified School District met and competed in the district-wide science fair on March 6, held at Hesperia High School.

Kindergarten:

1st place: Savannah Camp, Krystal Elementary School, "Up, up and away"
2nd place: Wendi Shaffer, Kingston Elementary School, "Do flowers drink?"
3rd place: Kodi Schnoor, Krystal Elementary School, "Time for an apple"

1st grade:

1st place: Tyler Gorsuch, Krystal Elementary School, "Rosie and the amazing race"
2nd place: Payton Swift, Krystal Elementary School, "The human lung"
3rd place: Dom Arellano, Krystal Elementary School, "Soda or water"

2nd grade:

1st place: Ariana Varela, Maple Elementary School, "Color recognition"
2nd place: Brandon Bunting, Krystal Elementary School, "The big dig"
3rd place: Cassidy Smith, Mesquite Trails Elementary School, "What natural fertilizer works best?"

3rd grade:

1st place: Xavier Downey, Lime Street Elementary School, "Sweating the score"
2nd place: Isaias Bravo, Krystal Elementary School, "Humpty - caged or free range?"
3rd place: Kayla Spruill, Topaz Elementary School, "Will bananas brown faster on counter or refrigerator?"

4th grade:

1st place: Andy Hines, Hollyvale Elementary School, "Mozart or Metallica"
2nd place: Devin DeStefano, Cottonwood Elementary School, "Mix it up"
3rd place: Andy Stokes, Cypress Academy, "Just sprout it"

5th grade:

1st place: Catie Williams, Maple Elementary School, "Reduce, reuse, recycle"
2nd place: Isabel Moreno, Topaz Elementary School, "A fish's view"
3rd place: Zoe Jackson, Juniper Elementary School, "What textile is safer"

6th grade:

1st place: Sarah Lockhart, Krystal Elementary School, "What's the splatter?"
2nd place: Kayla Matzek, Krystal Elementary School, "Ibuprofen experiment"
3rd place: Sophia La'Rocca, Krystal Elementary School, "The eggcellent dome"

7th grade:

1st place: Tyler Peterson, Ranchero Middle School, "Most useful glue"
2nd place: Thomas Sedlak, Ranchero Middle School, "Watts the big idea"
3rd place: Elizabeth Smith, Hesperia Junior High School, "Which bean absorbs the most water?"

8th grade:

1st place; Nicole McGowan, Ranchero Middle School, "Attack of the Killer Cleaners"
2nd place: Mark Melendez, Ranchero Middle School, "Ant attack"
3rd place: Kimberly Jones, Ranchero Middle School, "Nothing but net"

9th-12th grade:

1st place: Kristine McGowan and Codi McMillam, Hesperia High School, "The arch bridge"
2nd place: Jesse Garcia and Melanie Cristianos, Canyon Ridge High School, "Does caffeine affect your blood pressure?"
3rd place: Michelle Douk, Nathaniel Payne, Kathy Tran, Hesperia High School, "Suspension"

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Reader's comments

You missed my point. And double check the name of that school, that might help. They have an excellent Arts focus there.
parent - Mar 20, 2010 03:52:15 PM	Remove Comment


Dear Parent, Please know your facts. Cypress focuses on music and foreign language. I do not know why this would help its chances at Young Author's, unless of course their stories were written in Spanish.
Supporter of Students - Mar 20, 2010 10:14:28 AM	Remove Comment


So by your reasoning, Cypress School of the Arts should be really impressive at Young Authors and things like that? A school's focus doesn't make it the best at what it does, just by default. It would take many years to build that base. Besides, I also saw the experiments on display at the District level and Dave has a very valid point. Most, if not all, were not done in the correct fashion. Sending projects to the county level that don't follow the guidelines makes our whole district look bad. You would think Krystal should've gotten it right. That would be like turning in a bunch of winning Young Author books that are filled with typos.
parent - Mar 18, 2010 03:53:30 PM	Remove Comment


Right On.
Amen - Mar 18, 2010 02:02:26 PM	Remove Comment


Did anybody think that maybe the students of Krystal did so well because the school does what it set out to do, promote science? If Krystal hadn't done well the Krystal bashers would be complaining that the science school isn't doing it's job. Get off of Krystal's back and Go Comets!
Supporter of students - Mar 17, 2010 04:13:40 PM	Remove Comment


I wanted to congratulate all the winners including my daughter ANDIE Stokes from Cypress School of the Arts and wish them all good luck at the County level
Susan Stokes - Mar 15, 2010 05:57:55 PM	Remove Comment


What's sad is that i predicted the winners 6 weeks ago on here. If that's not alarming, I don't know what is. And yes, the judges know exactly whose projects are whose, because each school, including the judges' schools, bring the projects to the District Science Fair. Besides, judging is not done correctly. Most, if not all, of those winning projects don't follow the true format of a winning science project. Research first, then hypothesis, then experiment. Most projects there are Hypothesis, experiment, then research. Hard to justify a winning project if it doesn't even follow the outline. No wonder the District's projects rarely do anything at county level. They're not the correct format.
Dave - Mar 15, 2010 02:13:50 PM	Remove Comment


And by the way, my students do not attend Krystal. We live on the west side of town. Every single one of our science fair students are hard working kids who each won at their school site in order to move on to the district. Good for them.
HUSD kids are all cool - Mar 15, 2010 09:29:37 AM	Remove Comment


I attended the HUSD science fair. It was totally fair. The projects were set up in such a way that no judge even knew the student's names or which schools they came from. Congratulations to all our HUSD winners. Way to go kids!
HUSD kids are all cool - Mar 15, 2010 09:27:08 AM	Remove Comment


I find it sad that this would be used as a political forum. As a judge for the science fair I find it ridiculous that anyone would call it unfair. Is it not possible that we look at the positive in this and give a congratulations to the students and teachers that worked to make this a success?
teacher - Mar 14, 2010 09:59:21 AM	Remove Comment


Looks like the judges are really trying to promote the Krystal school as being the best choice for science. We need to make this fair by having outsiders do the official judging.
Dave - Mar 13, 2010 10:20:05 AM	Remove Comment


A thank you to Kathy Miller for a job well done!
teacher - Mar 12, 2010 06:05:48 PM	Remove Comment

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