Sumter County hosted its first District Science Fair where the best and brightest middle and high school students were able to share their science research, experimental designs, and interesting conclusions with a host of judges from a variety of professions.
Enthusiastic young researchers from South Sumter Middle, South Sumter High, and Wildwood Middle High presented their projects in classroom science fair competitions where each school selected their top 25 projects to compete at the District Science fair. The District Science Fair hosted 100 projects which were placed in 12 different categories ranging from Behavioral to Intelligent Machines to Engineering to Animal Sciences.
After an intense two days of judging, the results proved to be very exciting for the participants!
Sumter’s high school Best in Show were Cheyenne Shirley, South Sumter High School and Jose Carvajal-Beltran, Wildwood Middle High. Sumter’s middle school Best in Show were Jason Holt, South Sumter Middle and Abigail Lacayo, Wildwood Middle High. These four students, as well as the top ten projects from each high school, with alternates, and the top eight from each middle school, with alternates, will move on to compete in the Big Springs Regional Science Fair in February.
Sumter will have great representations at the Big Springs Regional Science Fair to share their research, experimental designs, data, and conclusions.
South Sumter Middle School students are: Jason Holt, Ally Maddox, Adison Lowery, Lucas Ramsey, Ashlyn Ishee, Jayley Lewis, Sariah King, Kylie Reed, Landen Sherman, and Emily Sclafani, Alternate.
Middle School students from Wildwood Middle High representing Sumter at the Big Springs Regional Science Fair are: Abigail Lacayo, Julia Temple, Noella Lipham, Emily Ruiz, Sophia McGill, Olivia McGill, Jaycee Woody, Savannah Hanna, and Alternates Jordan Miranda Juarez, Lily Kosa, and Joseph Wise.
South Sumter High School student representatives are: Cheyenne Shirley, Alynza McBride, Bob Sager, Emma Bogue, Johanna Heijkoop, Ty Kadur, Avory Robison, Colby Rinberger, Savannah Stephens, Amber Arnold, Rylee Shirley, Jacob Cullen, Natalie Moore, and Gary Owen, Alternate.
High School representatives from Wildwood Middle High are: Jose Carvajal-Beltran, Kadie Mariano, Jordan Riche, Ariana Zarazua-Benitez, Trinity Skaggs, Leirin Byrd, Angelinna Diaz, Emma Strickland, Emory Strickland, Brandon Martinez, Josh Doucet, and Alternates Raquel Roland, Jubilette Huff, Amandalesly Miranda, Ana Miranda and Adrianna Perez.
“We are all proud of these budding future scientists, medical professionals, engineers, or whatever they choose to excel at in the future! And, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the school sponsors, parents, students, and judges for all of their time and hard work as well,” said School Superintendent Rick Shirley.
School coordinators this year include Emily Keeler of Wildwood Middle High, Shelbie Wiley of South Sumter High School, and Patricia Heijkoop of South Sumter Middle School.
