190 Students Win Science Fair Honors

For some of the 1,200 students who spent the past several months poring over petri dishes, graphing charts and collecting bacteria samples, the time was well spent: About 190 students won awards Thursday at the conclusion of the Ventura County Science Fair.

There were 16 categories, ranging from applied mechanics to zoology, and each category was split into three age-level divisions between fifth and 12th grades. Participants were treated with a Thursday evening ceremony and additional prizes, including a space camp trip from Camarillo-based Imation Corp. and scholarships from Amgen.

A few examples of projects that won first place include Kelsea Turrow of Moorpark’s Flory Elementary School, who won the fifth- / sixth-grade level prize in behavioral sciences for “Why do I have to do a science project?”; Mary Schlegel of Santa Clara Elementary School in Santa Paula, who won the junior physical environment division for her project on earthquakes, and Patrick Griffin of Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, who won the senior division in chemistry for determining the amount of bacteria and heavy metals from sewage before and after its treatment.

This year’s fair, the 44th of its kind, had the most student participants in Ventura County history and was the largest county fair in the state, according to Morley Cohen, fair director.