Four Smackover-Norphlet students headed to FFA agriscience fair
The Future Farmers of America host the Agriscience Fair every year, a national competition for middle and high school students for agricultural scientific principles and emerging technologies in agricultural enterprises.
Of the five national finalists from Arkansas, three finalist teams stem from the Smackover-Norphlet school district.
Reese McKinnon, a freshman at Smackover High School, became a national finalist with her experiment to see what candles burn faster. McKinnon took candles of several different colors and tested to see how long it took for each to burn completely.
She found that the candles without any coloring to them, those that just used white wax, took longer to burn completely and would therefore be more cost effective in an emergency situation. She concluded that the time difference was most likely linked to the chemicals used to turn wax different colors.
"I thought about it this way, what would the world need to know?" McKinnon said. "Say we had a terrorist attack and the electricity went out throughout the U.S. then you need to light your house so people would go by candles. Which one burns faster? You need to know which one to buy so it'll last longer."
Meanwhile, freshmen Anna Grace Crutchfield and Kaylee Sanchez, the only two person team from Arkansas to be a national finalist, tested color bias in food products. The two took apple juice and added green and red food coloring. They offered three cups to classmates, one without any food coloring, one red and one green. Crutchfield and Sanchez found that eight classmates took the red cup, seven took the green and five took the regular.
Thus, they concluded that if they were to make a food product it would sell better if it was colored red.
"I've done a project similar to it for my science fair for like fifth grade," Crutchfield said. "But the one I did for fifth grade was what they thought it tasted like, because they didn't know what it was. But this one we wanted to see if a certain color made somebody choose something over something else."
Emma Anglin, an eighth grader at Norphlet Middle School, competed in social science testing whether people favor fresh or frozen vegetables. In her experiment, Anglin cooked the two different kinds of vegetables the same way before taking them around to family members and asking which one each person thought tasted better and had more nutrients.
Anglin found that people prefer fresh vegetables when it comes to taste, texture and appearance.
"I was thinking about how if you freeze fresh veggies if it'll take away the nutrients and all the good stuff out of them," Anglin said. "I was looking at ideas and this was something that was different. It felt really good because I didn't expect to place. It felt really good to be going to state let alone nationals. It's going to be really fun."
The four students will be heading to nationals in Indianapolis
Oct. 24-27. The competition is part of the annual National FFA Convention & Expo. They will face off against students from all over the country. There are 12 competitors in each category and none of the Smackover-Norphlet students are competing against each other.
"We honestly thought we weren't going to place, but we placed anyways," Sanchez said. "I'm excited, but I'm kind of scared because there are other competitors. It'll be an experience that I'll never forget."
Michael Shine may be reached at 870-862-6611 or mshine@ eldoradonews.com. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook @MichaelAZShine for updates on Union County school news.