On Tuesday, March 5, three students from Montgomery County Middle School competed in the
Missouri Regional Science Fair for the Northeast Region at Central Methodist University in
Fayette, MO. There were two separate fairs that the contestants could compete in, the morning
portion was the Missouri Junior Academy of Scientists(MJAS) that consisted of writing a
scientific paper and then a PowerPoint or Google slides presentation. The afternoon portion was
the ISEF competition that consisted of poster judging without the student followed by live
judging where the judges ask the young scientists about their projects. Neither fair separated the
contestants by grade, instead middle students competed against each other and high school
students competed against each other.
In the ISEF competition, Avery Finke with her poster about magnets won fourth place in the
Physics category. Julia Elder with her poster about sunscreen won third place in the Chemistry
category. Aurora Gibson with her poster about popcorn won second place in the Chemistry
category.
Both Julia and Aurora gave wonderful presentations and were able to answer some tough
questions in the MJAS fair. Julia Elder was one of 6 middle school students selected to move on
to the state MJAS competition at Missouri Western State University in April.
