Students representing Gainesville Middle School and Gainesville High School participated in their first regional science fair on Jan. 27 with 30 students attending.

The students did several months of research, experimenting, analyzing results, logging data and creating presentations for their projects.

Gainesville High School had several students who received awards.

Mary Nelson Bell and Anne Marie Dye earned a silver medal for their research on "E. coli’s resistance to common antiseptics and disinfectants.” Ianah Checo earned a silver medal for her research on “Testing Bias in a Photo Lineup.” Mary Peterson and Molly McLeod earned a gold medal for their research on “Dream Vacation,” and Mark Toth earned a gold medal for his research on “Helios orbital relation to the climatic events on the Earth.”

Peterson, McLeod and Toth qualified for the state competition by earning gold medals. These top winners from Gainesville High School will participate in the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair March 30-April 1 at the Classic Center in Athens.

Several Gainesville Middle School students also received awards. Ansley Nolan and Danny Pechano earned a bronze medal for their research on “How does nitinol wire work in mouth braces?” Sebastian Martinez and Pablo Tamayo earned a bronze medal for their research on “Can you measure the speed of light in Jello?”