Fayette’s middle and high school students have a passion for science, and that passion was well noted at the 2020 Fayette Science and Engineering fair held January 14 and 15 at the LaFayette Educational Center. 
A total of 278 students from all of the county’s middle and high schools presented 167 projects for judging, an increase of 17 percent from last year. A total of 88 students and 56 projects won first place honors and will be advancing to the Griffin RESA Regional Science and Engineering Fair on February 6.
Among them are students who placed in the top one percent of the competition and are this year’s FIRST (Fayette Innovations in Research, Science and Technology) Foundation award recipients. Those students are Harsh Singh, J.C. Booth Middle; Arshi Noorani, Fayette County High; Sara Anis Ali, Fayette County High; Jocelyn Wang, McIntosh High; Brenden Feldman, McIntosh High; Jacob Gerson, McIntosh High; Sameer Chowdhury, McIntosh High; Carter Groh, McIntosh High; Liz Mangin, Whitewater High; and Marc Matos, Whitewater High.
The FIRST Foundation was started in 2014 by a group of Bennett’s Mill Middle students who pooled their prize money they received from their science fair awards to start the foundation with the purpose to honor top science projects at the Fayette County fair as well as the science fair coordinator who demonstrated tremendous support. This year’s fair coordinator winner is Jill Lloyd from Sandy Creek High.
Projects focused on a diverse range of science and technology topics, many of which were aimed at improving business functions, environment, and work safety such as delivery drones and robots, a safety glove for hammering, fingerprint based security systems, sun tracking solar panels, and recycling for 3D printing.
Students who take first place honors at the regional competition will be eligible to compete at the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair March 26-28 in Athens, Georgia .
