CRESTVIEW — Following a recent science fair, the students at Davidson Middle School continue to excel in the subject, said science teacher Sharon Richardson.
"Our students have been successful because we have established high expectations for their projects," she said. "Science projects support the concepts that our language arts and math teachers are teaching."
See the Davidson Middle School science fair photo gallery>>
Several students are going to compete with their Okaloosa and Walton county peers in the East Panhandle Regional Science Fair scheduled Feb. 4-6 in Fort Walton Beach.
Based on research, presentations and overall knowledge on the projects they experimented on, several students are now in the running for regional competition, including Jacob Kitchen.
Kitchen, 13, won first place in the physics category with his project, "The effect of a magnetic field on the color spectrum."
"It really doesn't have that much effect at all," he said.
This is second time that Kitchen has won first place in the school science fair. Kitchen's project testing the different temperatures on magnets took him to the state science fair last year.
"It was a good experience, because I got to go and meet a lot of new people and see their projects," he said.
Kitchen said his love of science comes from the "wanting to know how things work." His interest also runs in the family.
"My dad is an engineer and so are my grandpa's on both sides (of the family)," he said. "I'm thinking about being a biomedical engineer (as a profession)."
His mother, Laura, is proud of her son.
"He set a goal that he wanted to make it back to state, and I hope he makes it," she said.
Laura was also impressed with what the other students had to offer.
"We saw some really interesting ones, really creative and thought-provoking," she said. "I don't really remember doing (science projects) when I was in middle school. I think this really sets a foundation for when they go into high school."
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown at 850-682-6524 or matthewb@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbMatthew.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Davidson students advancing to regional science fair