FFA students are national finalists

Three Hot Springs County High School students have become 2021 National FFA Agriscience Fair Finalists and will attend the National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 27-30. 

Finalists, Tymber Eckley, Austin Slagle and Lexi Overfield will be supported by FFA advisors ​​Britton Van Huele, Becky Martinez and Ranell Hindman. 

Martinez explained the process and level of the competition and said, "the agriscience fair is something that we do intra-curricular. As part of the curriculum for the ag science class in seventh and eighth grade. And then in the 10th and 11th-grade classes at the high school as well. They do the project as part of their curriculum for a class. All students compete in our local agriscience fair in February, and then they have the option to go on to compete at state. All of these [finalists] plus a few more won first at State. From there, they have to submit their research paper to nationals and from that, they pick the top 10. Only one from each state gets to go on to nationals. They've submitted their research paper. We found out at the beginning of August that they were in the top 10. They presented virtually via Zoom during our virtual shutdown, September 10. They presented virtually to a panel of judges, and then they let us know on Friday, October 1 who the top three are."

Van Huele added, "We have such great support from our different departments with the Tech Department. They helped with the video and the sound and everything. We saw other schools would have just had a computer that kids were trying to talk across the room to this computer on Zoom and it wasn't a very good picture. But we had cameras that we were able to use for some of it that made it a lot better for our kids."

Hindman also has contributed to the advisement of the students. She said, "I'm kind of new to the whole program here, but I definitely got to help with getting them prepared for nationals, having them present all the time and thinking up questions that could possibly help them. So my part this year was a little smaller, but I'm looking forward to helping my juniors and sophomores."

Tymber Eckley did her project in the animal systems category. Eckley said her project this year was to determine if sheep preferred to drink purified water or tap water, and which kind would the sheep drink more. Her hypothesis was that sheep would drink purified water more, which in the end she was correct. Eckley was surprised by the results because tap water contains more vitamins and minerals, but the purification process takes those elements out. Eckley started the research while she was in eighth grade and now she is a freshman.

Lexi Overfield was a sophomore and is now a junior this year. Overfield's project was to find if there was a relationship between the grizzly bear and elk populations in the Yellowstone ecosystem. She researched a large area that included Yellowstone. Overfield's hypothesis was that there was a relationship and as the grizzly bears recovered in that area, they would impact the elk populations and they would balance out. Her hypothesis turned out to be correct. Overfield said, "I'm hopefully going to do some more research on that and include wolf species as well to see if they have an impact on them as well."

Austin Slagle's project started when she was an eighth-grader and now she is a freshman. Her project was to test Thermopolis water, water from the aquifer in Worland and against Dasani water to determine which on is the best drinking water. Slagle's hypothesis was: Does the chlorine and hardness affect the taste. The wrestlers were that indeed chlorine does affect the taste.  

All three of the finalists express excitement about their achievement. The winners will be announced at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana with an audience of approximately 55,000 students plus their staff and family. The Thermopolis finalists will participate in Session Two at 2 p.m. Eastern. The event will be streamed online and also can be seen on RFD-TV on Dish.

The first-place prize is $1,000, second place is $750 and third is $500. All of the finalists' achievements and their potential winning can be used on their resumes when applying for scholarships.