Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993 TAG: 9305180113
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BILOXI, MISS. LENGTH: Medium
Moses, who lives in Newport, also is a student at the Southwest Virginia Governor's School.
His week in Biloxi was not all fair-related. On two mornings, he had to take advance-placement exams through prior arrangements with his school.
He and Carla Rogers won the top senior division awards last month in Wytheville at the Blue Ridge Highlands Regional Science Fair, sponsored by Wytheville and New River Community Colleges. That qualified them to go on to the international fair in Biloxi.
This was only the second year for the Blue Ridge regional fair. Last year, one of its winners - Jia Liu from Grayson County High School, also a Governor's School student - brought back a fourth-place award from the international fair.
Don Linzey, regional science fair director, said the Biloxi fair had 850 students exhibiting, about 100 more than last year. They came from 20 countries.
Moses' exhibit was titled "Effectiveness of Aerodynamic Modifications to Railroad Coal Hopper Cars."
Making the 820-mile trip to Biloxi with Moses, Rogers and Linzey were Linzey's wife, Juanita, representing New River Community College, and Harvey Atkinson, a science teacher at Rural Retreat High School in Wythe County.
They participated in activities ranging from a trip to the Stennis Space Flight Center, where they watched a test-firing of the main engine for the space shuttle Discovery, to seeing Mardi Gras floats from earlier Biloxi and Gulfport celebrations on parade.
Rogers, also a Pulaski County High School student, had an exhibit in the environmental science category. That category drew 108 entries, the largest of the 13 categories at the international fair.
Linzey said he will now start working on the third Blue Ridge regional fair for next April.
"I'm going to redouble my efforts to get more schools to participate," he said.
If a school holds its own science fair, the winning students qualify for the regional fair and some may well take awards at the international fair as they have for two years now.
"They can win some of these things," he said. "Somebody's going to win it."
by CNB