Germantown Academy's Middle School hosted the annual 8th Grade Science Research Open House and Awards Ceremony on Monday, December 18. The annual event was the culmination of the 8th Grade's three-and-a-half months long independent science research project.

"The 2017 Germantown Academy Middle School Science fair was another success," said Middle School Science Department Head Cory Eklund. "We had great judges help assess our 104 Middle School projects. Our students did a great job of asking interesting questions, designing strong experiments, and analyzing their results. I am proud of the diverse topics and interests and how our students conducted themselves through this process. We awarded 44 projects and will have students represent GA at the Montgomery County Science Research Competition in March 2018."

At GA, students are given a thorough understanding of what science research is throughout the three-year science program, starting with a solid foundation in sixth grade.

"You can't just step into this project and produce some of the work you've seen," said Middle School Science Teacher Jim DiFranco. "It starts in sixth grade, understanding the fundamentals, the basics of how to even design an experiment. How do you come up with variables? How do you change variables? How do you control variables? What's a control group? All that starts in sixth grade with several projects and activities targeting science skills. That work is further developed in seventh grade and culminates in students initial experience with conducting their own independent research project. But everything we're doing in class, projects and activities, is getting students to think and act more like scientists."

Thank you to all those who volunteered their time to judge this year's competition!