Junior high kids take gold at state science fair

Each came up with a unique project and both took home gold. Columbia Falls Junior High sixth-graders Cortnee Anello and Sam Pierce both received gold medals at the Montana State Science Fair at the University of Montana on March 18-19.

Anello’s project involved horse hearts. She theorized that a horse in excellent condition would have a lower heart rate.

She tested five horses and compared a race horse’s heart rate while resting and working with pleasure horses and a competition horse.

Anello said her theory turned out to be wrong — the race horse actually had a higher heart rate because it had more muscle mass.

Pierce’s experiment compared the methane-making abilities of dog droppings and horse manure when combined with other household waste.

He allowed the two mixtures to ferment in bottles and then measured the amount of methane each produced. The horse manure mixture won over the dog poo, he noted.

Anello said she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She owns a horse of her own, a paint named Smoothie. Her favorite television show is “Heartland” — a series about a horse whisperer in Canada.

Pierce said he’d like to be a paleontologist some day. He said he doesn’t watch TV shows, but he likes to watch movies — mostly documentaries. The last movie he saw was “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” — about a man who radically changed his diet and lifestyle and lost 100 pounds.

The gold medals qualify the two for the national competition in Seattle.