The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Look at Big Sandy high school science teacher Melanie Schwarzbach and the chances are you will see a big smile on her face these days.

She is getting seven high school scientists ready for two spring Science Fairs. One is in Havre on March 9; the other is in Missoula on March 20 to 22.

Schwarzbach thinks she has a whole host of winners in this spring's entries.

Here are the high school scientists and what they are working on. Hold on to your hats. Many of these projects border on the unbelievable!

Maddy Reichelt and Gabriella Blatt are working on converting pine trees that have been infested with pine bark beetle into fuel that will run motors. They have been working closely with the Bio Fuels Department at MSU Northern. Schwarzbach said that the two didn't think the project would work but it is working very well! Think of that, from dead and diseased pine trees, a fuel that can make something run!

Duke Darlington heard that wild animals were not able to function as well in areas where there were roads as they could in areas where there are no roads. He just happened to have an area that has a lot of bobcats in it and a lot of trails. He set up a large number of cameras in trees and is studying the effects of those bobcats to area roads. Schwarzbach says Darlington is so intense in his study that he actually knows all his bobcats on an individual basis even though he has not met any of them and so far, anyway, no effect on the bobcats by area roads.

Jessica Roth works with slime. Her slime is a living organism with no brain but still living. Amazing is she can get the living slime to respond to her tests. So what, you might ask? Well, there could be an application for this living slime to be in our computers and when the electricity goes out, that slime could collect the data and hold it until the computer is usable again, then regurgitate it, so to speak, back into the computer so nothing will be lost during power outages! Think of it as a living computer chip! As for the tests, so far 27 out of 28 times the brainless slime has responded correctly to Roth's stimulus.

Meanwhile Jamsey Belcourt had noticed a lot of alkali in their farm land west of Box Elder. So, he went to work, assisted by the Agriculture Research Station south of Havre, to find plants that would grow in the alkali soil and help to reclaim that ground, making it suitable for planting once again. Belcourt did not feel that he was too successful this year in finding that special plant but he did find some barley that did very well in the alkali ground. That is to be continued next year unless Belcourt comes up with something even better to work on.

Everett Sipler worked with, get this, making compost so hot that it would serve as a hot water heater and heat all the hot water needed for an average Big Sandy home. He needs his compost that his water lines are running through to be up to 170 degrees. Schwarzbach feels like Sipler will get there yet. Just imagine compost providing hot water for the household! Amazing or what?

Abby Sandlin studied weather events and is trying to prove that police arrests are more when there is a major weather event. She has correlated police arrests in Chouteau and Hill Counties with major weather events. So far her research is inclusive and she knows that she needs to get a large police department like Great Falls to get involved before she can have the kind of research she needs to prove her thesis. Meanwhile, maybe there is some truth to that "Long hot summer!"

One very good thing about the study of science is that some of those following their projects would spend their Fridays that they didn't need to be in school, in the science lab.