Name, age: Clemence Hudry, 11, and Eudoxie Hudry, 9.
School and Neighborhood: Clemence, a sixth-grader, and Eudoxie, a fourth-grader, both attend Rose Hill Elementary and live on South Rose Hill.
Accomplishments: Clemence and Eudoxie’s “Electro-worm” project won first place at the Washington State Science Fair on April 1. The project studied the effects that electromagnetic fields had on worm growth.
The sisters got the idea for the project after a neighbor told them about the electromagnetic fields generated by power lines. Inspired by this newfound knowledge, the sisters decided to see if local power lines would have an effect on earthworm growth.
For their project, the Hudry sisters placed worms in several bins and positioned them at different spots in their neighborhood. They used nine bins with 20 worms in each bin, and placed three bins at each location: one directly under power lines, one 100 yards from the nearest power line and one 276 yards from the nearest power line. These bins were left in place for almost four weeks.
The sisters had originally hypothesized that the electromagnetic fields would have no real impact on worm growth. The worms under the power lines grew almost twice as much, however.
“We were very surprised by the results,” said Clemence.
The sisters said that the experience taught them a lot about worms, in particular that worms matured faster than they expected.
For their presentation, the sisters built a detailed model and put together a large display board describing their experiment.
Key to awesomeness: Clemence and Eudoxie had finished in second place the year before and worked extra hard to improve their position this year.
“I was really happy that we got first place,” said Clemence.
“We like first place a little better,” said Eudoxie.
The girls both enjoy science and particularly enjoyed working together on the project.
“We work together really well,” said Clemence.
Their mother, Marie-Alexandre Henry, says that the two girls enjoy spending a lot of time outside and that they are very curious about the world around them.
“They’re very adventurous,” said Marie-Alexandre.
Their mother credits the teachers at Rose Hill Elementary for inspiring the girls to learn and excel.
