Pierceton Elementary Schooler Wins for Sheep Stomach Science
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
PIERCETON – Jordyn Leininger, a Pierceton Elementary School fourth-grader, is a science fair state champion. Leininger won first place Saturday in the junior division with her project “Yummy! Yummy! In My Sheeps’ Tummy!” She advanced to state after winning at the regional competition at IPFW. “She was the first fourth-grader ever to advance to state. And she’s now the first fourth-grader to ever win state,” said Ashley Roberts, Pierceton Elementary science fair sponsor. Jordyn is the daughter of Thad and Rochelle Leininger. Only 120 junior division candidates in fourth through eighth grade and 120 senior division candidates in grades 9th to 12th were invited to the 27th Annual Hoosier Science and Engineering Fair at IUPUI in Indianapolis. These students were the top winners at their regional science fair, according to the event’s website at http://www.sefi.org/hsef/ For her project, Leininger wanted to see what feed broke down the best “so I can make sure my lambs are the best that they can be,” she said in an interview Monday. Leininger estimated her family’s farm has more than 50 sheep. “They’ve all had their lambs right now, so we have a bunch,” she said. In explaining her project, she said, “I wanted to see what feed is the best so I created a simulated sheep stomach. Then I put muratic acid in a jar. And then I put 30 grams of each feed in a jar and I set timers. After the timers went off, I graded it and recorded observations.” She thought ground feed would be the best, but after recording her observations she found it was not “because it did not keep changing. I think if you put it through another test, like do it a third time, it would still not change again.” In her tests she discovered that pellets were the best overall. Alfa was the worst, she said, because while it lost a couple of grams in the first test, it didn’t dissolve any further in the second test. She tested six different feeds. She decided to test feed for her project in December when an ewe got sick. “It wasn’t getting nutrients. We had an old ewe who wouldn’t eat and she kept getting weaker from that. She got sick and then she wouldn’t eat the feed so I wanted to see what feed I should have fed her to make sure she was the best,” Leininger said. Her dad, a farmer, liked the experiment. “My dad also thought it would be a really great project. I came up with it, but he thought it would be a really great project,” she said. “... He’s been to state before so I decided to take his word that it was a really good project.” Roberts said Leininger’s journey started at the school’s own science fair. Two fourth-graders from Pierceton – Leininger and Madilyn Bradley – advanced to the regional, with Leininger winning first place there. This is the first year fourth-graders were allowed to advance to the state competition, Roberts said, and Leininger won her division. All participants at state received a medallion, but Leininger also received a plaque for her first-place victory. During the awards ceremony, Leininger said when they called her name for winning first place, her mouth dropped open. “Then I started beaming ear to ear,” she said. “Honestly, it was really fun because it was really nice because there were a lot of good projects.” She said her dad will probably hang her award on the wall with her other plaques. “I have this wall and it’s filled with stuff I won with sheep, so we’ll probably put this on it since it was a project with sheep,” Leininger said. “I won several awards with sheep. This year I won sixth overall market lamb at the Indiana State Fair so I’ve had a good school year.” Roberts said she was proud of Leininger’s success at the state science fair. “This was exciting to have someone make it all the way to state and win it, especially a fourth-grader,” Roberts said. Leininger is already thinking about her science fair project for next year. She said her dad suggested a DNA project, but she was considering testing which type of cloth filters a type of worm disease best.
