With the number of classes dwindling away for the Class of 2018 and summer on the horizon, senior projects have jumped into the minds of every student who will go out and experience a small piece of the real world. While most seniors will have a focus for the project, an activity, and service hours that they need to find, three students have an activity all set up for them in the form of the International Science and Engineering Fair. Seniors Daniel Ellis, Michael Hall, and Flannery Enneking-Norton have the opportunity to travel to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA to be a part of this annual Science Fair. They qualified for their projects in the Advanced Science Research and Advanced Technology classes. Enneking-Norton’s research focused on the relationship between two invasive species, earthworms and buckthorn.

“I was honestly surprised that people cared about my worms. The recognition feels rewarding, though, because my project entailed a whole lot of hours alone in the woods, often lost. But overall, I am thankful for the experience. I learned how to be patient and how to trust the scientific process,” Enneking-Norton said.

Ellis and Hall built a self-driving car using 3-D printing and neural networks.

“This experience is surreal for me, to have my work, as well as my classmates’, recognized on a national stage is an amazing feeling,” Daniel Ellis said.

Their projects, which they have been working on for months, will compete against projects from all across the globe. They will be competing from May 13th-19th.