Young scientist a three-time winner

Trinity Williams has loved science for as long as she can remember.

She got her first microscope in the first grade. While her sister and cousin played in a field near their home in California, Williams examined grasses, bark and water on slides.

"I'd run back to the house: 'Mom, Mom, you've got to see this. It's so cool!" said Williams, now a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Helena Flats School. "Science has always been my thing."

Her passion was rewarded earlier this month at the annual Flathead County Science Fair, where Williams' "Fuels of the Future" project won first place in its category.

It was Williams' third-straight grand champion title, a feat no other student has accomplished at the county science fair.

It wasn't an easy victory, she said.

The pressure to capture a third win was enormous. It began when last year's project - "Is Your School a Bacteria Cafeteria?" - took first place in its category.

Williams had swabbed several potentially germ-laden surfaces at Helena Flats, including the boys' and girls' restroom handles and a soda button on the vending machine.

A typical 12-year-old girl, she hypothesized that the boys' bathroom handle would host the most bacteria, but her experiment demonstrated that the Mountain Dew button - students' preferred beverage that year - was the grimiest.

Maybe it was the disgusting photos of magnified bacteria on Williams' display board or the thorough research she'd done. Maybe judges were impressed by the girl who had entered for fun as a seventh-grader when Helena Flats only does science fair projects in sixth and eighth grades.

Whatever the reason, Williams was named the seventh-grade grand champion in the biological experiment category. She had won first place in the same category the year before with the experiment, "Does Feeding Peanuts to Chickens Make Them Lay Larger Eggs?"

Her science teacher, Randy Jakes, was delighted with the second win, she said.

"Mr. Jakes was so excited," she said. "He said, 'You've got to get ready for next year. Three-peat! Three-peat!"

At that point, Williams needed a break from science fair projects. But by the time school started last fall, she was ready for a fresh round. She started weighing possible project ideas in November, trying to decide which was the most interesting.

"I knew I wanted to do something big this year," she said.

At first she considered revisiting and expanding her sixth-grade chicken experiment, but then a story about a man who drove a biodiesel-powered van caught her eye. She told Jakes she wanted to build her own biodiesel engine.

"I tried desperately to talk her out of it," Jakes said, explaining that building an engine was a huge project for an eighth-grader. Even when Williams suggested building a small model engine, he questioned her choice.

Finally, Williams decided to test how well biodiesel burned in a lantern. She and her mother, Christina, found specially designed biodiesel lanterns but were appalled by the $110 price tag.

Williams wondered why they couldn't burn biodiesel in a regular kerosene lantern instead. A quick online shopping venture and $20 later, she had four identical red kerosene lanterns, a fire extinguisher and an array of fuels to burn.

In addition to biodiesel, the teen tested soybean oil and a soybean oil/kerosene mix. She used kerosene as the control. She predicted that the mixed fuel would burn brightest and longest.

She was wrong.

After testing all four fuels in a homemade dark box, measuring the heat and brightness each lantern emitted, Williams discovered biodiesel was the brightest, longest-lasting fuel with the lowest temperature.

Its only drawback was the unpleasant sensation in her throat from inhaling the fuel fumes.

"I could taste cold, stale French fries at the back of my mouth," she said. "It was gross, but kind of cool."

With help from her mom, Williams compiled all of her information into a research paper for Jakes. Then she prepared for the Helena Flats science fair Feb. 29.

It was nerve-wracking, she said; her spotless record depended on her making it past the school science fair. Her classmates were sure she'd win, but Williams wasn't so confident. A bout with the flu the week before the school fair further compounded her nerves.

She made it through the competition with no trouble, however, and had a week and a half to get ready for the county fair. The closer it came, the more nervous she got.

"There was tons of pressure," she said. "The day before the school science fair and the morning of the county science fair, I was freaking out."

One night, she cracked under the strain and started screaming at people and crying. Christina Williams worried the pressure for a third victory was too much for her daughter.

"At one time I told her, 'You don't have to do county. It's your choice,'" she said.

Williams didn't consider quitting an option, however. Her perseverance paid off when she won a third grand champion title and a chance to compete in April at the state science fair at the University of Montana.

This will be her first trip to the state competition. In the sixth grade, her family had only been in the valley a short time, and Williams wasn't prepared for a larger competition. Last year, she wasn't allowed to bring her bacteria to the competition - a "heartbreaking" disappointment, Christina Williams said.

With the pressure to three-peat gone, Williams can just enjoy the anticipation of competing against students from across Montana.

"I'm really excited about state," she said. "I smile every time I talk about it."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.