Science and its innumerable avenues of exploration led 23 Thomas County Central High School students to attend the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Regional Science and Engineering Fair Feb. 10 in Tifton.
Thirteen of these students earned a chance to represent TCCHS at the state-level competition: Dru Jones, Laney Mobley, Riley Ambrose, Lilian Oaksford, Laylen Hines, Kathryn Covington, Layla Staley, Even Roberts, Kayden McClain, Caroline Westberg, Nayeli Badillo, Joleth Correon, and Claire Jones.
“I am extremely proud of all the students' hard work to prepare for region science fair,” TCCHS Science Department Chair Meagan Bradshaw said. “Students came prepared and ready for their judges' interviews.”
Freshman Claire Jones, 14, also won second place in the senior division (high school) for her project, “Don’t Be A Chicken.” Her experiment tested how various seasonings – salt, cinnamon, garlic powder and onion powder – would affect preserving a chicken thigh over five days. She hypothesized that salt and cinnamon would have the best results while the onion and garlic powders would be the least effective.
“I conducted my experiment by measuring the weight change of each piece of chicken,” Jones said. “Whichever ones lost the least amount of weight were coated with the best preservative, and whichever ones lost the most had the worse preservative."