STEM students at Effingham College and Career Academy have been hard at work over the last few months working on their scientific research projects, an assignment in their Scientific Research class.

The students got into groups and chose a topic from a variety of choices that they will base their research project around - the students will continue to research their project the remainder of their time while students at ECCA.

The freshmen and sophomore students selected topics from a variety of scientific fields, such as aerodynamics,renewable energy and air pollution.

One group of students chose to do their project on solar power, titled “Solar Energy: A Viable Energy Source for Effingham County Hospital to Use”.

The three students, Lauren Vaigneur, Reese Nighbert and Marybeth Corbin, wanted to see what would happen if Effingham Health Systems used solar power from solar panels on the roof of the facility to generate the power.

They conducted research on the blueprints of the hospital, the amount of energy needed to run the facility and how many solar panels would be needed.

They explained that they want to get in contact with EHS to see if their project would be possible to do.

More photos can be found on page 3A.