Houston Middle takes home science awards

HOUSTON -- Last spring, Houston Middle School student Ben Frank had no idea how much of a buzz his science fair project would make at Alaska's Science and Engineering Fair in Anchorage.

"I wanted to build a motor," Frank said. "I found out about it on the Internet."

Frank ended up building an electrostatic bottle motor: Three empty soda bottles are placed in a row, the two end bottles are connected to a TV screen via aluminum foil, and when the TV is turned on and off, the electrostatic currents cause the middle bottle to spin. Sound serious for a then-seventh-grader? Judges at the fair seemed to think so.

"I won the school science fair before, but I didn't expect to win state," Frank said earlier this week. Frank won first place in the junior division for his motor, while helping bring another science award back to the middle school.

Sixteen Houston Middle students, with science fair projects ranging from dog treat preferences to genetic fingerprinting, brought home the Alaska Science and Engineering Fair Most Outstanding Projects Award in the junior division. This is the first time the award has been won by a Mat-Su school, and Houston science instructor Chad Lusk couldn't be more proud.

"I wasn't really surprised," Lusk said. "They earned it."

Lusk worked with three other Houston teachers, Shelly Youngberg, Kristen Hammers and Stacy Spakousky, to ready the students for the fair. Students typically start working on their projects in November, compete in the school's science fair before spring break, then go on to the state science fair in April. Last school year was the third year the team brought students to the state competition; all school entries are eligible to go, but students must come up with the funding for the trip to Anchorage. Lusk was the teacher-escort to the science fair this spring, and though he wasn't surprised about the students' wins, he was a little surprised by what was awarded to him.

"I won the Outstanding Middle School Science Fair Teacher award," Lusk said. "I got the award, but it was really a team effort from all of us. We all really won."

The outstanding overall trophy will remain in Houston Middle School throughout this year; the students will have to return to state and try to reclaim their title to keep it another year.