Alaina Bell recently won first place in the Ohio Soybean Bioscience Award at State Science Day for her project titled “How does peptide D4E1 affect soybean cyst nematode survival?”

Alaina will be a senior at Bloom Carroll High School and was a student in Joe Carter’s class at the time of the competition. State Science Day was hosted virtually by the Ohio Academy of Science.

Thanks to the Ohio Soybean Council Foundation, the Ohio Academy of Science’s Science Day presents the Ohio Soybean Bioscience Award for the best projects using soybeans in the areas of agricultural bioscience, bioresources, biopolymers, bioproducts, biofuels, biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, and/or earth and environmental sciences.

In each of the 17 districts participating in District Science Days, up to three prizes valued at $100 will be awarded to eligible students in grades 5-12.

At the state level, the Ohio Soybean Bioscience Award is worth $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, and $250 for third place. The team award is worth $1,000 and is split among team members.

The Ohio Soybean Council sponsors GrowNextGen.org and brings agricultural science into the classroom by providing hands-on teaching tools to motivate the next generation of workers. With financial support from the Ohio Soybean Council and the Soybean Farmers of Ohio, GrowNextGen helps expose students to a variety of careers in a thriving industry.

This article originally appeared in the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Bloom-Carroll student takes first place at State Science Day