Caley Howland wasn’t going to let a fever keep her from showing her work.

The Buchholz High School freshman came down with a temperature of 103 on the day of the Alachua County Region Science and Engineering Fair, so she had to communicate with judges from her sickbed by cell phone. Whatever she said must have impressed them, because her project “Shaking Without Breaking: An Experiment in Earthquake Construction,” was named Best in Show in Engineering.

The win means she is automatically qualified for the International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta in May in addition to the State Science and Engineering Fair in Lakeland in mid-April. Altogether 32 students qualified for the state fair based on their performance at the regionals.

Caley says she’s looking forward to the prospect of sharing her work at such a high level.

“I’ve been on the website for the international fair and it sounds like an amazing experience,” she said. “I’m really excited to be able to go.”

Howland was one of 200 local middle and high school students who competed in the regional fair with projects on topics ranging from catapult physics to super worms. Most spent months preparing their projects, and all had to beat out the competition at their individual schools to make it to the regional fair, which was held at Santa Fe Community College.

Demetrius Nelson, an eighth grader at the Professional Academies Magnet at Loften, did his project on the most appropriate materials for cleaning up oil spills. He says he enjoyed the experience.

“You learn a lot of new things by doing a project,” he said. “It really helps your education.”

Ajit Vakharia, an 8^th-grader at Lincoln Middle School, did a project on diamagnetic levitation. Complex stuff for the layman, but he says it’s important that scientists do a good job of communicating their work with the general public.

“If scientists just sit in labs all day and never tell people what they discovered, they’re never really going to change the world,” he said. “This science fair teaches us how to go out and tell people about our research, and that critical to future science.”