Summerour Middle School Science Fair Club’s success at 2021 Gwinnett Science Fair

The 2021 Gwinnett Science Fair was held virtually on February 19. As always, the Regional Fair aimed to showcase amazing STEM talent in Gwinnett County schools and connect tomorrow’s science and engineering leaders with STEM business and community leaders.

Many Gwinnett County schools have science fair clubs that help students come up with a science project, a testable hypothesis and preparation help for the big competition. At Summerour Middle School, science fair is serious business.

Summerour MS Principal Dr. Natalie Looney summarized their 2021 science fair experience: in their program, students worked with advisors on Zoom every Monday and Wednesday from September through February. Then students competed in the school’s Science Fair in January and presented their projects, from inception to data collection to results.

Summerour MS students worked and collaborated online, much like scientists have to do in the current environment. Ten students from the school advanced to the GCPS Science and Engineering fair. They all placed in their perspective categories.

One of the students, Sharika Awashti, placed first in the Environmental Engineering category and will move on to the Broadcom Masters National Science Competition.

“We would love to share the story of their journey and the countless hours poured into the process by the teachers and advisors who thrive on giving students the opportunity to be the best they can be. We are building future scientists every day in our classrooms,” Looney said.

Of course, success in science fair at any level would not be possible without the contributions and support of team sponsors and advisors. Team Sponsors Phani Duggirala and Urooj Beg dedicated significant time and energy to make sure their team was ready to present with confidence.

“The Science Fair is all based on scientific method and how they use their scientific concepts, basically applying their scientific knowledge to the real world,” Duggirala said. “So students can then improve their conceptual understanding through exploring, experimenting, analyzing.”