The students of Incline Elementary School made the community proud on Feb. 11 at the annual Science Fair.

K-5 students filled the school multipurpose room with creative experiments and inventions, and 154 experiments/inventions were exhibited — a school record.

Projects ranged from experiments of rotting foods to exploding containers and inventions for pet control devices such as Doggy Pull-No-More. A public awards ceremony was held in the evening and provided something for everyone to admire.

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Volunteer judges from the community were assigned to different grades, and each child was interviewed by a judge so he or she could validate and present his or her hard work.

The judges spent all day reviewing projects, interviewing the kids and had the difficult task of deciding on first, second, third and honorable mention places.

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“This was a difficult group of students to judge because there were so many good choices, but as usual, creativity and originality were the common threads among winners,” said judge Brent Welling, an engineer and retired co-founder of Linear Technology.

Seven projects and several inventions qualified to enter the regional competition held in Reno at the Lawlor Events Center, March 26-27.

“Our kids proved to be articulate and for the most part followed directions and experienced hands-on research and science methodology,” added Olivia Cushing, Science and Outdoor Coordinator at IES.

Some of the outstanding exhibits included bouncing eggs, kid-made rainbows, marbles that helped test liquid viscosity, mouth bacteria from humans and five different household pets, a room changer that automatically redecorates your home, the best fuel for explosions, and the 2-in-1 Pot.

Special acknowledgements go to all the judges and especially the Science Fair directors; Cushing, of the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation AmeriCorps Program; and Stacy Combs, a parent of children who attend the school.