8th-Graders Win Science Competition Four Sacajawea Students Claim National Grand Prize

Four Sacajawea Middle School students won the grand prize in a national science competition for their proposal to turn grass smoke into paper and newsprint.

Eighth-graders Eli Penberthy, Erin Richardson, Klara Bowman and Lindsey Watts won $25,000 from the Bayer-National Science Foundation Community Innovation competition Saturday at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.

Nine other teams, who presented their ideas to a national panel of scientists, vied for the award.

In November, Sacajawea science teacher Virginia Ledgerwood-Kral asked her eighth-grade students to identify and research a community problem.

Richardson, who has asthma, and Bowman, 14, who has a friend with cystic fibrosis, urged their teammates to attack grass burning.

“When they’re burning, some days it’s hard for me to go outside,” said Richardson, a slight 14-year-old.

The students’ proposal doesn’t ban grass burning. Instead, it asks farmers to trim their fields to one inch before burning to produce less smoke.

According to the students’ research, area farmers burn grass that’s 2 to 3 feet tall. The taller the grass, the more smoke is produced when it burns.

The grass left after cutting would then be sold to a paper-processing plant, which would reimburse farmers for trimming and hauling expenses.

Linda Clovis, president of the Intermountain Grass Growers’ Association, said she’s aware of the paper-making process.

“It works better with hay straw than grass straw. But I would love to see their proposal.”

Clovis said farmers have to burn in order to produce the lush grasses that carpet the nation’s golf courses.

The team came up with their proposal after watching a video about a new Canadian company, Arbokem, at Spokane’s Agricultural Exposition in November. Arbokem turns agricultural pulp into paper.

The Sacajawea team must use the $25,000 in the next year to implement their proposal. They plan to make an educational video this summer.

“We want to hold a statewide meeting,” Watts said.

“Invite the appropriate state officials,” Penberthy added. “We’re working with the Spokane Chamber of Commerce.”

The team would like to see an agricultural paper processing plant built in the Spokane area.

Ledgerwood-Kral said the girls’ efforts at the competition put Spokane on the map.

“I had judges ask me if Sacajawea was a private school or an all-girls school,” she said.

And yes, she added: “They all got A’s.”

, DataTimes