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This will be the last year for the full-time accelerated high school science and math program at the Career Center. The state has dropped the funding, and the program has been limping along on fundraisers for the last few years. The plan is to continue the program half-day for two more years so this year's sophomores and juniors can complete the program.

The Intermediate School District and the seven local superintendents are trying to come up with a three-year dual enrollment program to replace it.

Eleven out of the 25 students invited to participate in the 2008 Southeast Michigan Junior Science & Humanities Symposium at Wayne State University are from the Science & Math Center. Each of the local students who applied to the symposium was accepted.

"Despite the funding hardships the students remained very focused this year, and the quality of research reflects their focus and commitment to science and to this program," stated Science instructor Brian Derowski.

"There was a great variety of research in so many disciplines this year, from engineering and biology to chemistry, agriculture and human behavior," he said.

College professors, scientists and military personnel in research and development judge the students' oral presentations. The top five presenters win all-expense paid trips to the nationals, where the top two students from each state present again. The armed forces and the Applied Academy of Sciences pay for the trips.

The state symposium will be held March 6-7.

The science students include:

*Sandusky sophomore Jessica Gwisdala, daughter of Dawn and Christopher Gwisdala of Sandusky. She compared the weight gain between 32 male and female Flemish Giant rabbits for a period of three to four months.

She weighed them and compared which gender gained or lost the most weight. The bucks and does were pretty close in weight, and she determined she would need more data to find out which gained the most.

*Brown City senior Jacob Soule, son of Ron and Tammy Soule of Brown City. He used a theoretical design to determine if lightening can be used as an energy source.

If lightening can be used to split the bonds between hydrogen and oxygen, then hydrogen could be split off to make fuel. The technology is already in use to trigger lightening strikes to a separate facility located in an area nearer the equator, where lightening strikes every day. He said the amount of electricity in one lightening bolt would provide 100 million volts.

*Sandusky junior Stephanie Fraley, daughter of Mary and Bill Fraley of Sandusky. She tested how playing a computer game affects students' ability to answer math problems and reading comprehension questions on sixth and seventh graders.

She took two groups of 25 each and had them play "Big Money" for 10 minutes, and then gave them the reading comprehension questions. She then waited a day or two and had the students take the same test without playing a computer game first. There was no difference in their test scores. Last year, she did the same thing using math questions, and notice a significant improvement in the test results.

*Croswell-Lexington junior Josh Matthews, son of Monica and Mark Matthews of Jeddo. He tried to determine whether wind turbines could be used on vehicles to generate electricity to supplement a car engine.

He took a computer fan and motor and held it outside the window while his father drove at 25 and then 50 mph. He found one fan could not generate enough electricity compared to what it takes to run a vehicle. However, with more research he may be able to discover if it could generate enough to run a car radio or fan.

*Sandusky junior Josh Cambridge, son of Jim and Becky Cambridge of Sandusky. He tested whether changing the length of time that E.coli bacteria are subjected to heat shock increased the efficiency with which the DNA of one organism picks up traits from the other.

He tried to use another organism to pick up the drug-resident DNA. He found the heat did not effect the bacteria as much as he thought it would.

*Marlette senior Brock Dean, son of Crystal and Wendell Dean of Marlette. He tested for the presence of E.coli bacteria in drainage ditches and streams in Elmer, Marlette and Flynn townships one day in the fall of 2005.

Thirty-eight of the 40 ditches and streams had bacteria, and 35 were over the legal limit of 235 per 100 milliliters. Most were 3,000 to 4,000 over the limit, but one in Flynn Township came in at 23,400/100 milliliters.

*Cros-Lex senior Justin Walls, son of Tom and Ruth Walls of Croswell. He studied the effects of sludge from a water treatment plan on cranberry bean plants.

He grew 50 beans in plain potting soil and 50 in a combination of potting soil and sludge, and recorded their growth for two weeks. Although the plants in sludge grew better, he said there was not a significant difference. He also determined there was no significant effect on the plants from the antibacterial agents from soap in the sludge.

*Brown City senior Brandie Kreiner, daughter of Angel and John Kreiner of Brown City. She tested 15 samples each from seven breakfast cereals to determine how much iron was in them since too much iron is implicated in everything from cancer and multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's Disease.

According to the labels on the boxes the amount of iron ranged from 25% -90% of the recommended daily dose. The Mini-Wheats contained the most iron, at 1,700 milligrams, when the daily average is 10 mg.

*Sandusky senior Jessica LaDuke, daughter of Melissa LaDuke and Jeff Little, both of Sandusky. She studied the effects on field mustard of growing under colored and clear lights, using the colors red, blue and green.

She watched 50 plants for four weeks under each light, except the green ones, which got knocked over after one week. The plants under the clear lights grew slightly taller, which she expected, however, she did not have enough data to show a significant difference.

*Cros-Lex senior Helen Gay, daughter of Alfred and Kathy Gay of Lexington. She compared the amount of light and heat produced by incandescent light bulbs over 15 minutes.

She wanted to determine if the bulbs would produce more light as they became hotter, which she thought would not happen. Gay found that while the heat increased significantly, the amount of light remained about the same.

*Cros-Lex senior Nicholas Jex, son of Rosanne and Greg Jex of Jeddo. He compared the breakage ratio for paintball brands to see how many broke on impact and what percent were duds. He used 10-11 varieties and used a paintball marker on a gun stabilizer and shot at a target. He found Big Ball, Zap and Blue Streak were significantly better than the others.