WARNER ROBINS -- The three-sided display boards sat on dozens of tables that filled the floor of the Century of Flight Hangar at the Museum of Aviation last week.

This year’s annual Houston Regional Science and Engineering Fair had at least 100 more entries than last year. In all, there were 801 entries.

Mossy Creek Middle School science teacher Jennifer Davidson said the growth was due to more children being in the gifted program this year. All students enrolled in the gifted program in science are required to participate.

Middle and high school students from Houston and Peach counties as well as Sacred Heart Catholic School and home-schoolers competed.

The projects had a wide variety of subjects.

Some students used baking as their science project. One was about using alternatives to yeast as a rising agent for cupcakes.

At least a dozen projects were about plants and soil. Zya Crawford’s project was “Does flute music help plants grow?”

Most looked like they were of special interest to the student.

For instance, some of the research was done on corked baseball bats and what fishing line is the strongest.

Mikayla Collins had twigs and fake birds on her display board for her project on “What color feeder attracts the most birds?”

The decorations on the boards ranged from sterile to the extreme with LED lights, garland and fake flowers.

All contained notebooks full of tests and hypotheses for the projects.

Winners of the regional fair will go on to compete in the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair in Athens at the University of Georgia in March.

The Best of Fair projects in the senior division will represent the county at the International Fair held May 13–17 in Phoenix.