On February 13, fifteen students from five Mount Pleasant ISD campuses competed in the Region VIII ESC Science and Invention Fair. The fair featured 299 projects from 27 school districts in the Region VIII area. Eight MPISD students were awarded medals for their projects.

Sean Acuna, a 4th grader from Sims, earned 1st place for his project “Robotic Arm: Power of the Claw”. His project tested three materials to create a robotic arm using water hydraulics. From Brice, 4th grade student Hayden Harvill placed 5th with his project “High Octane”. Harvill sought to answer whether more expensive gasoline saved money by burning more efficiently. Fourth-grade student Braylea Brown from Corprew placed 5th with her project “Pulley Power=Pipetacular”. She created a simple machine pulley out of PVC pipe and tested the amount of water weight it would pull up.

From Wallace Middle School in the 5th grade division, Sabrina Otero-Svirska placed first with her project “Mirror Mirror on the Wall”. Her experiment was over plane mirror reflection. Placing 6th was Anna Beth Sellers with her project “Can You See Gluten Free” that tested if gluten free foods were preferred over glutinous foods in a blind taste test. In the sixth-grade category, Kortland Stovall took 5th place with his project “The Tree Ring Trials” that sought to determine if the growth in tree rings is indicative of the amount of rainfall received in a corresponding year. Stovall’s project will advance to the East Texas Regional Science Fair in Kilgore on February 28.

From Mount Pleasant Junior High, eighth-grader Sophie Greco placed 2nd with her project “Smile”. Greco’s project investigated which toothpaste had the best whitening agent based off of the percent of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda in the toothpaste.

P.E. Wallace Middle School 5th grader Isaac Hernandez placed 2nd overall in the Invention category which included all students 4th-8th grades. Hernandez invented a portable air conditioner that used dry ice as the coolant as a solution to help athletes combat heat exhaustion during extreme summer temperatures.

Additional MPISD participants included Jonah Hernandez from Fowler, Andres Jaimes and Cooper Rider from Wallace, and Marilyn Johnson, Hope Powell, Anthony Cabrera, and Rane Miller from Mount Pleasant Junior High.

“I am particularly proud of the students that participate in the science fair for Region VIII,” said Susan Gage, Wallace Instructional Coach and Science Fair Coordinator. “These students sign up voluntarily, and with the understanding of the amount of work that is required outside of the normal school day. The students spent many hours planning, researching, and investigating their questions, as well as preparing their project boards. I am very proud of each of these students, and how they represented MPISD.”

Photo 1 –
All Participants L to R
Row 1: Jonah Hernandez, Braylea Brown, Sean Acuna, and Hayden Harvill
Row 2: Isaac Hernandez, Kortland Stovall, Andres Jaimes, Anna Beth Sellers, Cooper Rider, and Sabrina Otero-Svirska
Row 3: Marilyn Johnson, Sophie Greco, Hope Powell, Anthony Cabrerra, and Rane Miller

Photo 2 – Sean Acuna, Braylea Brown, Hayden Harvill, Isaac Hernandez, Kortland Stovall, Anna Beth Sellers, Sabrina Otero-Svirska

Photo 3 – Sophie Greco