JACKSON - St. Aloysius School administrators presented awards to five outstanding science students at its recent science fair.

"It is always great to see the students' hard work and dedication," said Jennifer Biele, a St. Aloysius middle school science teacher and organizer of the science fair. "This year, we had five girls who gave us the top five projects."

Principal Elizabeth O'Connor said it is wonderful to see the children so thrilled to show off their hard work and how their learning of science extends beyond the classroom.

The winning students and their science projects were:

• Caroline Fanning, "Earthquakes and Buildings."

• Christa Grammer, "DNA in Fruit."

• Kaitlyn Naismyth, "Music and Math."

• Emily O'Brien, "How to Make Your Own Thermometer."

• Cassandra Weber, "The Effects of Alka Seltzer."

Each youngster completed the project on her own and was awarded a special certificate, Biele said.

"The science fair is a time for all seventh grade students to experiment with their projects," the teacher explained. "The students worked through the scientific method and realized that their experiments don't always work out the way they thought they would."

Kaitlyn said, "I loved learning new things about human behavior."

Emily said she enjoyed completing her project because it was fun to make a thermometer and observe how it works.

Caroline said, "My best memory was when a pre-K student came right up to my project and sat on my lap."

St. Aloysius School invites science teachers from local high schools to judge the science fair. This year's judges came from Monsignor Donovan High School, Toms River; Red Bank Catholic High School, Red Bank; and St. Rose High School, Belmar.

In other St. Aloysius School educational programs, students were recently treated to a "Young Authors Day and Mime Time" event. The program is designed to support and enhance the creative writing curriculum.

The importance of structure was stressed and students were told where and how to find the inspiration that was needed to write stories.

"Thinking about how their story could be 'mimed' is a great way to get the kids thinking about their writing," O'Connor said.

During the writing process a performer, Jeff Dove, stopped by classrooms to answer questions and help with the writing. The day culminated with afternoon assemblies in which the students were recognized for their work by having selected stories acted out by Dove.