Libby students demonstrate science literacy skills

May 17—Libby Middle High School held its annual Science Fair last week with seventh- and eighth-grade students participating.

Eighth-grade teacher Shannon Ostrowski and seventh-grade teacher Bill Moe shared some information about the fair, which has been going on for about 20 years.

"This year, eighth-graders had outstanding science fair projects. The eighth-grade science fair is a way for students to learn and demonstrate their science literacy skills," Ostrowski said. "The projects were judged by community members, students and teachers. Using a rubric, judges were looking for three main criteria."

The criteria included that projects had to show the steps of scientific inquiry and experimental design. Second, students were judged on presentations and how well the student could communicate their understanding of scientific inquiry.

Finally, students were judged on creativity, neatness, and organization of the project display boards. The top 10 (in alphabetical order) projects go to the following students: — Angelica Bailey — Eye Know Who! — David Chapman — Cup of Thermodynamics — Brooklyn Cockerham — Whooshing Winds Dropping Temperatures — Vivian Cole — Foundation — Capri Farmer — Is it Blood — Lexie Kim — Pop Goes the Boba — Olivia Martineaux — Iron: The Solution is in the Tablet — Ashton Rehl — Bready or Not — Vara Riddle — Moldy Mayhem — Hadleigh Wood — Pepper Perception

According to Moe, one half of the gym was for seventh grade with the Festival of Montana and the other half was the eighth grade with the Science Fair.

"Seventh-grade students picked a Montana county and did research on that specific county for their Montana History Project. They created population graphs, essays, details, mascots and colorful boards for their counties," Moe said.