Ascension Solorsano Middle School capped off a winning season
for science with eighth-grader Brent Butler’s second place finish
at the state science fair.
Ascension Solorsano Middle School capped off a winning season for science with eighth-grader Brent Butler’s second place finish at the state science fair.
Teacher Dawn O’Connor brought three students down to the California Science Center in Los Angeles for the California State Science Fair on May 17 and 18. Butler presented a project on “How Will the Salt Percent Threshhold in the Fast Plants Affect its Next Generation Offspring?” while sixth-graders Lucas Miller and Brendan Peddie entered a joint project, “Does a Rocket that Spins When it Climbs in Altitude go Higher Than a Rocket that Doesn’t Spin?”
Peddie and Miller are students of Solorsano teacher Cathleen Johnson.
The state award caps a stellar season for science at the school. Solorsano also took home 20 specialty awards, 14 category awards as well as seven first awards and three first-place prizes, among other awards, at the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship in March.
Some of those awards consisted of cash prizes and medallions among other tokens of honor, and a couple of students received certificates signed by the U.S. Surgeon General.
O’Connor, who oversees the Solorsano science program with Johnson, also was named as an outstanding middle school teacher at the event.
This year, the school had 52 participants with 41 projects.
