Polk County Public Schools
Lakeland’s Lawton Chiles Middle represented Polk at two high-level national science competitions held in June. Chiles was one of eight schools nationwide chosen to participate in 2010 National Championship Week of the Pennsylvania-based Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation science education program.
A team from Lawton Chiles participated at National Championship Week at Disney with their project titled “Project Phosphogypsum.” Project Phosphogypsum was selected as a national finalist, earning the team the all-expenses paid visit to Disney and a $200 savings bond for team members. The Christopher Columbus Awards are a national, community-based science and technology program for middle school students. The program challenges students to work in teams, under the supervision of an adult coach, to identify a problem in their communities. The students then apply the scientific method to create an innovative solution to the problem. The program encourages them to explore, analyze and draw conclusions and apply what they learned to better their communities.
Project Phosphogypsum finds a use for a chemical derivative of phosphate mining. Project Phosphogypsum team members were Lindsey Brown, Annika Mulaney and Abhinav Venigalla. While at Disney, they also received an interactive, behind-the-scenes look at science and technology at Disney World.
Two teams of students from Lawton Chiles competed in the U.S. Army’s eCYBERMISSION National Judging and Educational Event held in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. eCYBERMISSION is a Web-based science, technology, engineering and math competition for students in grades six through nine.
Students compete for regional and national awards in eCYBERMISSION by solving community problems.
Brown, Mulaney and Venigalla participated at eCYBERMISSION with Project Phoshogypsum while another Chiles team participated with a project titled “Strawberry Alliance.” The project researched water preservation and strawberry protection during freezes.
Strawberry Alliance team members were Kelsey Curlutu, Taylor Daugherty, Rami Harb and Joey White.
Lawton Chiles students qualified for the national eCYBERMISSION event by winning first place in a southeast regional competition. First place in the southeast won them the all-expenses paid visit to Maryland and a $3,000 savings bond for each team member.
Lawton Chiles teacher Debbie Viertel was the school’s advisor for both the Christopher Columbus and eCYBERMISSION events.
