THOMASVILLE — Allison NeSmith, 12, won the seventh-grade science fair on Tuesday, February 5 at the Thomasville Community of Classical Conversations, a Christian educational community for homeschoolers.

NeSmith’s project examined the relationship between the price per ounce of three detergents and their stain fighting effectiveness. She stained pieces of white T-shirts with grass, coffee and ketchup. After waiting 24 hours, she pretreated the stains with one of the detergents and then washed the shirt. According to the results of her experiment, the most expensive brand removed the ketchup and coffee stains, while none of the brands completely removed the grass stain.

“I chose this project because I was interested to see if you really need to pay for the most expensive detergent when the lower priced ones would work just as well,” NeSmith said.

NeSmith narrowly edged out Nate Popiel, 13, for the top prize. Popiel’s project examined how various music vibrations affected plant growth. Gray Connell, 12, placed third in the science fair competition with his examination of how roots react when the direction of gravitational pull changes.

The judges for the science fair included Phil Danner, Jan Westberg and Faye Quigg. Danner and Westburg are both retired school teachers and Quigg is an employee of Flowers Foods.

“The students and I learned a tremendous amount about the scientific method and proper research and analysis over the past three months,” said Mike Allan, the students’ Challenge A (7th grade) tutor. “I encouraged the students to select projects that they would find particularly interesting. For Christians, the study of science is an exciting way to learn about God’s design of the universe.”

The Thomasville Community of Classical Conversations meets at Dawson Street Baptist Church.

Classical Conversations® is a classical education resource used by homeschoolers in all 50 states and 22 foreign countries. CC now has more than 125,000 students enrolled in its tutoring programs, which are provided by more than 2,500 CC communities. CC provides resources, guidance and a community for a Christian homeschool curriculum using classical education in three developmental stages: grammar, dialectic and rhetoric.

Leigh Bortins started Classical Conversations in 1997. The family-owned company is headquartered in Southern Pines, North Carolina. For more information, visit www.classicalconversations.com.