KIDS TAKE PRIZE OLYMPIAD SPOTLIGHTS YOUNG MINDS.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

QUARTZ HILL - A three-foot rocket made of plastic soda bottles and a wooden harp made with fishing line and copper pipes were two of the inventions used by students at Joe Walker Middle School to take second place at the 19th annual Los Angeles County Science Olympiad.

Zachary Risinger and Lance Genato used their newfound skills to build a lightweight bridge of basswood and balsa wood and glue. Weighing a mere 23 grams, the bridge is strong enough to hold 35 pounds suspended from its center.

Lance researched bridges on the Internet and asked the advice of his engineering relatives.

``The one thing that I learned from them was triangles, so my whole thing is pretty much based on triangles, and then I looked at real bridges.''

The competition took place March 5 at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Fifteen students and two alternates competed against 24 teams in 23 different categories.

Their second-place finish guarantees them a spot at the state competition on April 16.

At the same competition in the elementary school category Ocotillo, Mesquite, Summerwind and Quartz Hill schools won gold medals. Valley View earned a silver and Sundown a bronze.

Zachary also worked with Mia Nilo to create a miniature aquifer that actually purified tap water mixed with food coloring, sand and vegetable oil while keeping a small plant alive.

``Basically this is a model aquifer and it displays the movement of groundwater, but that's never enough for Science Olympiad, so they decided to make it harder for us,'' Mia said. ``We have to filter contaminants in the water, we have to have a wetlands.

The water was tested after being pumped through the aquifer and was good enough to give the students a fourth-place finish.

Mia found the competition experience gave them real world skills and helped them to learn how to think on their feet.

``Other than kind of learning about how you're going to be with work later on, it kind of helps your thinking skills and then you really get to learn how you can work with your teammates in a pinch and stuff,'' Mia said.

This year two new competitions were added: Sounds of Music and the Awesome Aquifer. For the music competition Mia and Nithya Kubendran played ``Up On The Rooftop'' and ``All Through The Night'' on the harp made of wood and pipes. With fishing line for the strings, the girls had to tune the harp quite frequently. In addition to the handmade harp, Nithya plays flute and piano and Mia plays clarinet and piano.

``We had to practice a lot three days before competition,'' said Mia. ``We had to do sound theory and we had to really quickly learn how to build these things.''

The harp garned a third-place finish.

``They're always really awesome. They work hard and they work together to support each other all the time. They're just troopers,'' said coach Wesley Thomas.

The other team members included: Kerwin Azares, Holly Clark, Erika Fedorko, Lance Genato, Tatiana Konovalov, Kirsten Roberts, Anika Singh, Matthew Sirreyeh, Stephanie Sosa, Trenton Thornberry, Ann Tran and Taryn Willett. The alternates were Sara Daniel and Jenna Hang.

In addition to Thomas, the students were coached by Lisa Fiore, Brian Hurlburt, Doug Phelps, Kathy Seargeant, Donna Spencer, Sara Lomanto, Bill Fedorko, Brian Brinck, Dorothy Brinck, Latika Singh, Cherokee Daniel and Vern Roberts.

Peggy Hager, [phone]

peggy.grimm-hager(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Joe Walker Middle School students took second place at the 19th annual Los Angeles County Science Olympiad.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer