RUSSELLVILLE, Mo. - Amber Monteer and Brittany Whittington won't be eating as many potato chips as they used to after comparing the grease content of several types for their science fair project.
The pair walked into the Cole County R-1 Middle School gymnasium this week enthusiastically to discover their project not only had a blue ribbon, but third place trophies and a trip to the regional science fair next month at Lincoln University.
Monteer and Whittington invested dozens of hours of writing their results and preparing their tri-fold display after an evening of experiments in Monteer's family kitchen.
They took 15 potato chips each from Lays, Pringles, homemade baked and homemade fried, and used a rolling pin to press the grease out between wax paper and graph paper. Then, they measured the number of squares soiled on the graph paper to deduce the grease content.
The Russellville Middle School has held a science fair for 16 years, beginning to honor Christa McAuliffe Day, according to former principal Jerry Koestner.