This year, four 8th-grade students from Chapel Hill Middle School took their projects from school-level competition to state-level competition. The young scientists from CHMS are Madison Gibson, Mikayla Gibson, Xiyao Gu, and Cody Wright.
Madison and Mikayla Gibson collaborated on a project called "Flawless Foto." They used coding to design an attractive photo-editing website that provides an easy, efficient solution for people who need help to produce quality images. After receiving 1st place honors at the regional science fair, the Gibson sisters’ project qualified for state, where they competed against 40 junior division projects throughout West Georgia. At the state competition, the twins took 1st place in the Systems Software category and received 3rd place Honors out of over 200 projects.
Another student, Xiyao Gu, created a physics project called "A Peek at the Pinhole." Xiyao explored the pinhole theory, nearsightedness, and optical eyewear design. Xiyao used her research on the pinhole theory to create glasses that could correct nearsightedness without prescription lenses. Xiyao’s project received 1st place honors at the West Georgia Regional Science Fair amongst about 40 competitors. She also placed her project in the district science fair, winning 1st place in the middle school division. Then, Xiyao received 3rd Honors overall out of 200 plus projects at the state competition.
Cody Wright, another Chapel Hill Middle School Wildcat, is no stranger to science fair competition. As a 6th grader, he achieved remarkable success at both the school and district level. Cody designed a project called “Is AI-Generated Text Distinguishable From Human-Written Text?” Cody competed in the West Georgia Regional Science Fair and received 1st place honors, which qualified him for the State of Georgia Science and Engineering Fair. He received 2nd Honors overall, which placed his project amongst the top 20% in the state out of approximately 240 projects in the junior division.