David Crockett High School has a still cooking up alcohol at its Science Fair, but is using the byproduct for a different purpose than getting intoxicated.Senior Zeth Flores and partner Chase Partin, a junior, have been doing tests with the intention of “going from waste to fuel.” With the still, they’ve been able to turn any starch-based foods into fuel. Their experiment started with apples and yeast and was able to produce a 58 percent alcohol concoction not for human consumption, but something that could be an alternate source of energy for our oil-dependent country. At the end of the Science Fair, Partin said they won’t just break down the display and move on — he says that’s when more research and experimentation begins. The goal is to work with cafeteria workers to see if they can collect the starch-rich food scraps and produce alcohol, which can be burned as fuel, on a larger, more efficient scale.Flores said he doesn’t want people to get a wrong impression about their work on alternative fuels though.“We don’t want people to say, ‘oh, they have an illegal still over at Crockett,’ ” Flores said.Their legal still sits next to a picture owned by one of the science teachers at Crockett, David Yates. In the old photograph, Yates’ grandfather sits next to his not-so-legal still many years before. Students and colleagues say Yates’ stories and background are the reason the school has seen such a large turnaround in interest in the sciences in recent years.There were only 12 students in Yates’ Biology II class when he started at the school in 2006, and has since seen that number blossom to 140 kids. Yates said enthusiasm for science, and teaching it in a way that grips the high school kids, is the cause.Interest was always there, he said, but now they have a way to develop their interests.“It’s outstanding,” Yates said. “They just needed a higher-level outlet.”Now the students can brainstorm with Yates and see and feel science on a personal level. Dr. Beth Hopkins, a former college professor now teaching sciences at Crockett, said she’s seen many students join Yates’ class because it’s “the one where we get to go outside.” This means the instructor takes kids outside to learn about everything from leaves and insects to ways to use science to survive in the wild. Yates has the interesting background of being both an Army Ranger and a professional biologist, Hopkins said.With his background, it’s no surprise that some of the projects on display at the fair include students tapping into maple trees to make their own syrup, having a three-dimensional printer aid in making state-of-the-art lap materials, using mini-helicopters carrying Vaseline-covered sticks to collect spores and pollen counts above crops and many other experiments.Brainstorming and tinkering is the base for many of the students’ experiments at Crockett. Kristain Hamilton, a senior working on the hydrogen to fuel project, initially got the idea after working with his stepfather. Crockett’s funding and materials have given him the opportunity to pursue the chance to work on it. The fair is not just a chance to do a project, get a grade and move on — Hamilton said he has aspirations to become a chemical engineer. He and his 11 other partners in the project come at the hydrogen conversion from different angles, showing how different fields go into scientific discovery, Hopkins said.Many of the experiments and projects have worked in conjunction with the science department at East Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee, from which Yates has made connections in pursuit of his doctorate.Sarah Vogt, a junior, working an insect curation display at the fair, explained some of the different kinds of creatures around the area that many people would not expect.“There are three types of scorpions around here,” Vogt said. She and Noah Cook, a senior interested in political science, showed over some of the most unique insects to the region. Not limiting herself to just insects, Vogt gave a description of the science department’s class pet, Fluffy, a four-foot Ball Python that guards a container of money slated to go to the fair’s winner.Acacia Rutledge, also a junior, said Fluffy used to hold the name Killer until it was changed to make the science snake more approachable.“It’s in its feeding cage right now, so we shouldn’t put our hands in there,” Rutledge said. “It doesn’t bite all the time, but (Fluffy) has bitten before.”
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