Michelle French, top left, the grand prize winner in the Calaveras County Science Fair, discusses her project, the “Fluoride Controversy,” during Science Night at the Museum at the Angels Camp Museum on May 7. (Photo by Lance Armstrong)

Award-winning science projects by Calaveras County students were presented by their creators during Science Night at the Museum, a new event that was held at the Angels Camp Museum on May 7.

Presented by the museum, in partnership with the Calaveras County Office of Education (CCOE) and the CCOE STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) Advisory Council, the event served as a way to honor the 2025 Calaveras County Science Fair winners of the Albert Michelson Science Award.

The award, inspired by Michelson, a Nobel laureate who lived in Murphys during his childhood in the 1850s, recognizes excellence in physical, life and behavioral sciences and math/computer science.

Michelson, who was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in physics, was best known for his early investigations of the speed of light.

His connection to Calaveras County led to the creation of the exhibit, “Albert Michelson: Illuminating the Universe,” which opened at the Angels Camp Museum last year. The co-directors of the exhibit project were volunteer scientists Doug Modlin and Sunil Mehrotra.

In addition to the presentation of award-winning student projects, Science Night included hands-on science exploration activities led by Modlin, Mehrotra, and Justin Miller, a fourth grade teacher at Mark Twain Elementary School.

Attended by about 60 people, the event began with introductions by the museum’s executive director, Martin Huberty; Debbie Strand, coordinator of communications and student events for the Calaveras County Office of Education; and Modlin, who is also a founding member of the CCOE STEAM Advisory Council.

Following those introductions, Libertas Academy 7th grader Michelle French, the grand prize winner in the county’s science fair, discussed her project, the “Fluoride Controversy.”

French, whose father is a pediatric dentist, told the attendees that many people believe fluoride is toxic.

“Actually, fluoride is not toxic at a certain dose,” she said. “As many people like to spread misinformation on social media, they tend to forget that everything and anything can be toxic. What I mean by everything and anything is that there could be too much oxygen in the air, and you wouldn’t be able to breathe.”

Through her experiments, French showed that an eggshell that is coated with a fluid-based toothpaste is more resistant to decay than an uncoated eggshell.

Another winning project was 11-year-old Robby Dove’s project, titled, “Who Can Tell the Difference Between Real and AI-Generated Pictures?”

Dove, who is a 5th grader at Albert Michelson Elementary School, told the Enterprise that to create his project, he gathered examples of real and artificial intelligence-generated photographs, and conducted various internet research.

In the analysis and results portion of his project, Dove wrote: “The kids generation are better at picking out AI photos. The grandparents generation are the worst at identifying them. No group got them all correct though. Everyone struggled with some of the photos. Most people did worse than they expected and were shocked at how good AI has got.”

Dove’s project won first place in the county science fair’s “Best Math and Computer Science Project” category.

Another first place winner in the county science fair was Logan Markus, a 4th grade student at Albert Michelson Elementary. He had the No. 1 project in the “Best Behavioral and Cognitive Science Project” category.

Markus explained his approach to his project, “Are Yawns Contagious?” 

“Basically, what I did is I conducted four experiments in different age groups and marked it down on paper and put them into a pie,” he said.

In his conclusion, Markus wrote: “I learned that yawns aren’t fully contagious. When you’re not thinking about yawning, you usually don’t ‘catch’ or copy someone’s yawn. But when you do think about yawning, you’re more likely to yawn when you see/hear yawns. The less sleep a person had the night before, the more they yawned.”

Other first-place county science fair winners included 6th graders Emalie Beauchemin and Ceclia DeGennaro of Mountain Oaks School, with their project, “Electrolytes,” which was featured at Science Night.

The event also showcased displays by second place winner Eliot Minkler, a fourth grade student at Albert Michelson Elementary School, with his project, “Does the Mucus Lining Protect the Stomach from All Foods,” and third place winner Noah Laker, a Hazel Fischer Elementary School 5th grader, who presented his project, “Can People Tell the Difference Between Drawings Colored by a Child or AI?”

Modlin mentioned that the science fair’s four “best of” category award winners also received the Albert Michelson Science fair award medals, plus a cash prize.

First place gold medalists each received $250, second place silver medalists were given $100, and third place bronze medalists were awarded $50.

The Calaveras County STEAM Advisory Council raises the money for these awards and donates it to CCOE. The purpose of the awards is to increase participation in the county’s science fair and to help with the costs of the students’ science fair projects and the costs for those participating in the California State Fair.

The event proceeded with the interactive science exploration stations, which Mehrota referred to as “learning centers.”

Mehrota presented a demonstration on photosynthesis, while Modlin provided a presentation on Michelson’s interferometer, which mixes and controls light waves to allow for greater studies. Thirdly, Miller led groups on a “rainbow challenge” journey using spectroscopy.

Miller shared details about his interactive presentation.

“So, light is made out of a whole bunch of different colors, even though we see it as white,” he said.

“We can look through with something such as these glasses to be able to see what colors it projects. And from that, we can tell what that element is.”

In his demonstration, which he called “Light is Life,” Mehrota demonstrated the importance of light, noting that without light, there would be no oxygen.

Modlin shared his overall thought of the purpose of Science Night at the Museum.

“Science Night at the Museum is about sparking curiosity, celebrating achievement, and showing students, their parents, their teachers, and our community that their ideas have the power to change the world,” he said.

Also part of Science Night was the presentation of a vase of flowers to Strand for her contributions to the event.

Modlin commented on the importance of those contributions.

“Special thanks to everyone at CCOE who supported us, and in particular to Debbie Strand, without whom, this all would not have happened tonight,” he said.

Asked about her work, including her involvement with Science Night, Strand noted that in her role as the student events coordinator, she organizes all the countywide student events, which include the Calaveras County Science Fair and Dinner with a Scientist.

Strand stated that it was through those two events that Modlin and Mehrotra spearheaded the founding of the CCOE STEAM Advisory Council.

“The goal of CCOE’s STEAM Advisory Council is to bring STEAM resources to our students,” she said. “We also found a need to (create an) incentive (for) students to participate in the science fair. This is when the Albert Michelson Science Fair Awards and cash prizes came to be.

“From there, the movement continued to the collaboration of the Albert Michelson exhibit. There is a panel in the exhibit that talks about our county (science) fair and the Albert Michelson Science Fair Awards. A medal that the students earn is on display, as well.”

Strand added that the creation of Science Night at the Museum evolved as an extension of the county science fair.

“It became an extension of the county science fair by inviting the winners of the Albert Michelson Science Fair Awards to display their projects at the event,” she said. “Once the concept of the event was birthed, it was time to start figuring out all of the logistics, and that is where I applied what I have learned coordinating all of the countywide events to (Science Night).

“In my humble opinion, I think the event was a smashing success and I would love to see if we can do this each year moving forward.”