Give just the facts to the Norick brothers, a pair of burgeoning scientists in Columbia Falls.

They brought home gold ribbons and top awards for their performances in mental athleticism at the Montana State Science Fair last week.

Deer Park seventh-grader Colin Norick won the Peterson Grand Award, given by the University of Montana for best seventh-grade physical science project. His project was called “The Power of Water.”

His brother, Columbia Falls High School freshman Colter Norick, brought home two awards, the Mu Alpha Theta Award and the INTEL Excellence in Computer Science Award for his project, “The Power of Genetics — Using Genetic Algorithms to Solve Complex Problems.” Mu Alpha Theta awards a project that creatively demonstrates a thorough investigation or a problem involving modern mathematics.

Colin began developing his project last fall. As with many experiments, there are periods of waiting for results. He said this project involved four days of measuring results as he split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. When recombined, energy is regained, but only at 50 percent efficiency, he said.

“To improve the efficiency, I used catalysts — a chemical that increases the efficiency of a reaction without being used up itself,” Colin noted.

His goal was to find the best catalyst. He tested a variety of chemicals with results showing cobalt nitrate was the best, improving efficiency by 9.2 percent.

“I chose my project because I’ve always been interested in chemistry and science. I have done science fair projects on hydrogen power and solar power before, and this was more or less a combination of both,” he said.

With a knack for science, Colin is well on his way to achieving his goal of majoring in computer science and getting a doctorate in chemical engineering.

Colter started his project after the Christmas holiday. He chose a project with a mix of his interests: genetics, computer science and math.

“My experiment was to test to see if a genetic search algorithm could find an optimal solution when key aspects of its coding was removed. To do this, I created the algorithm and used it to find an optimal solution for the Deer Park School’s scheduling process,” Colter said.

An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for calculations used in mathematics and computer science.

Next year, state science fair entrants better bring their A game because the Norick brothers plan to return, and Colter already has a project in mind.

“I do plan on entering the state science fair next year with a project that deals with genetic algorithms in cooperation with artificial neural networking,” he said.

About 559 science projects were entered at this year’s fair held at UM.

West Valley Middle School turned out a great showing at the science fair with 26 students earning ribbons.

 Two West Valley students earned both gold ribbons and grand awards. Christopher Oberling won the second-place biological science grand award, while Collin Kazmier won third place in the same category.

West Valley student Hunter Nicholson earned third place in the sixth-grade category for the Montana Energy Education Council/NorthWestern Energy Award and a gold ribbon for his science project titled “Burn Baby Burn,” which tested bio and fossil fuels.

Ribbon-placing experiments:

Bigfork Middle School

 Henry Bjorge, “Which Bridge is Better,” gold

Deer Park

 Josh Anderson, “My Egg-Spearment,”  silver

Fair-Mont-Egan

 Caleb Leclercq, “Stirling Engine, Sterling Power,” gold

Somers

 William Thompson, “Cellulose as Biofuel — Optimizing the Effects of Basidiomycota Cellobiase on the Substrate p-nitro phenyl glucopyranoside,” gold

Trinity Lutheran

 Brenden Anderson,  “Shaky, shaky,” gold

 Serena Koch,  “Which Type of Water is the Hardest,” bronze

 McKenna Stahlberg, “How Clean is Clean?” bronze

West Valley School

 Kelsey Alexander, “Save the Trees,” bronze

 Alexandria Appelt, “Crystal Power,” silver

 Danielle Birney, “Put a Lid On It!” silver

 Jordan Brandon, “Arrows Flying Out of Pounds,” gold

 Tanner Brown, “Earthquake Terror,” gold

 Lindsay Creighton, “Don’t Get Sour Over Milk,” silver

 Abi Fiske, “Deep Knee Bends,” silver

 Natasha Johnson, “Snowflake Flurry,” silver

 Meghan Levanen, “Camo,” silver

 Gabriella Mammana, “Run Mascara Run,” bronze

 Brooke Mills, “Egg Drop,” silver

 Trey Mitchell, “Launch Zone,” silver

 Jillian Nitschelm “Plaque Attack: Lub-Dub, Lub-Dub,” bronze

 Kasey Sands, “Can You See Me?” gold

 Ethan Spohnhauer, “SWISH,” silver

 Jordan Steffen, “French Fries: Mold or No Mold?” silver

 Rachel Tikka, “Death Rays,” silver

 Kristen Toren, “Thank Goodness for Guided Imagery,” gold

 Garrett Tutvedt, “The Human Air Carrier,” silver

 Kendall Warner, “Take a Deep Breath!” silver

 Cadie Williams, “Hoops,” silver

 Alec Willis, “Soundproofing a Box,” silver

 Lane Wilson, “Need A Lift?, gold

St. Matthew’s Catholic School

 Kacie Barrett, “The Nose Knows But ... How About Taste? The Effects of Smell on Taste,” bronze

 Savannah Cheff, “What Color Do You Hunger?” silver

 Alex Drew, “Moving at the Speed of Light: Examining the Speed of Light Using Refraction,” silver

 Payton Keltner, “Paper Lanterns,” silver

 Conner Masur, “Mentos and Coke Eruption!” silver

 Robert McCarvel, “Which grocery store has the carts with the most bacteria?” gold

 Wyatt Smith, “Scientific Method: Case Study of Plants,” bronze

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.