Local Scholar Brings Home Silver Medal from Science Fair

He’s a 4.0 student with a curious mind and the initiative to pursue his curiosity. Vista Heights Middle School student Nagee Clowney wondered whether people associate words and colors, so he created a science experiment to find out; his experiment earned him a gold medal at the Inland Science and Engineering Fair in San Bernardino and a silver medal at the California State Science Fair, held at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Nagee’s project, called “Color Thoughts: Word Color Association,” took a look at how people associate certain words with certain colors. Using cluster sampling, where a large group is divided into smaller representative samples of the whole, Nagee collected and analyzed results from over 250 surveys, accounting for nearly 20 percent of his school’s population. His second-place medal was awarded in the Behavior and Social Sciences category. “A science fair is an opportunity for students to work like professional scientists,” explained teacher Stacey Lerma, Nagee’s project advisor, “to choose a topic that they’re curious about and design an experiment to learn more. Nagee wanted to know if people associated certain colors with certain words because he always has. We’re very proud of him.” His second-place finish at state and gold medal at the regional level also earned Nagee two nominations to apply to the Broadcom Masters Science Fair competition. Nagee, a seventh-grader, is an exemplary student leader in and out of the classroom. Since last year, he has consistently earned a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. He serves as president of the Black Student Union at Vista Heights, is a member of the Sigma Beta Xi Mentor Program, plays on the school basketball team, plays travel ball, and was a member of the Odyssey of the Mind team.