YOUNG SCIENTISTS COMPETE IN 44TH ANNUAL REGIONAL FAIR

Sikeston High School student David Schuchart flexed his wired, gloved hand and a robot hand mimicked his moves.

The 10th-grader made the robotic hand and then compared its moves to that of a standard machine gripper. Schuchart concluded his "bio-hand" worked better.

Schuchart's project was one more than 200 science projects entered in the 44th annual Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Cape Girardeau.

The projects by Southeast Missouri students, grades 7 through 12, ranged from a study of foaming fungus to the effects of liquid on teeth.

Schuchart built his robotic device from scratch, using a small tire as the base for the robotic hand and arm. He created the aluminum fingers and arm, which are powered by six, 6-volt batteries.

The device also makes use of a can-opener motor.

"This is completely made by hand," said Schuchart, who is fascinated with robotics. The son of a Sikeston farmer, Schuchart likes to tinker with things.

As a youngster, he used to take things apart to see how they worked.

"I've been doing this since I was a little kid," he said.

Schuchart said his man-made arm is strictly mechanical.

"I got the wrist motion here," he said, flipping a switch to make the mechanical arm bend.

Schuchart spent about four months building the robotic device.

This was Schuchart's second appearance at the regional science fair. As a seventh-grader, he entered a project in which a robot played a piano.

Schuchart wants to go into the prosthetics field.

"I want to be the person that designs them and makes them," he said.

Josh Spangler and Aaron Barnes, ninth-graders from Farmington High School, created a battery-powered, spider-like device and the computer program that runs it.

Barnes said the engineering project took about five months, with most of the time spent writing the computer program.

The two students demonstrated their walking creation on the Convention Center floor.

Said Spangler, "We are doing pretty good with this thing."

Ruth Hathaway, an environmental chemist, directs the science fair.

The science projects have changed over the years.

"Each year they get more sophisticated," said Hathaway who has worked with the science fair since 1982.

As a student in the 1960s, she participated in the regional science fair.

Computers have made a difference, both in the printed words attached to exhibit boards and in scientific experiments.

"Computers are so much smaller and faster and affordable," Hathaway said.

This year's exhibits were judged Tuesday afternoon. About 50 judges were involved, ranging from science professors at Southeast Missouri State University to local industry scientists. Every project was judged by at least two judges.

The exhibits opened for public viewing Tuesday evening. The exhibits will be open for public viewing again today from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The event concludes Thursday with an awards program. A number of scholarships and prizes will be awarded.

The two top high school winners receive an all-expense paid trip to Detroit in May to compete in the 51st International Science and Engineering Fair.

The top eighth-grade exhibitor also attends as an observer.

Twenty-six junior-division projects also are entered in the international fair via the Internet.