Evan Buckner

Evan Buckner, 15, a sophomore at Pine Bluff High School won the regional round of the Soybean Science Challenge at the 2015 Southeast Arkansas Regional Science Fair held at the University of Arkansas at Monticello on March 12.  Evan is the first Soybean Science Challenge winner in the Southeast region.  

 

Evan received a $300 cash award provided by the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board.  His science project tested two different soybean strains to see which one would be more effective in fighting a common plant pathogen.

“I won the first Soybean Science Challenge to have been held at the Southeast Regional Science Fair.  That is sometimes hard to believe,” Evan said. “I knew my project was good and could be applied to similar projects, but didn’t know if it was good enough to compete with other really good projects.” 

 

Evan Buckner, Soybean Science Challenge winner at

Southest Arkansas Regional Science Fair, discusses his

project with from left Soybean Science Challenge judges Brett

Stewart and Nick Seiter, Asst. Prof. and Extension Entomologist.

 

Evan also won 1^st place in the Plant Sciences category at the regional fair and 3^rd place   at the Southwestern Energy Arkansas State Science & Engineering Fair at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on April 4.

 

Evan completed an online Soybean Science Challenge course to meet the eligibility requirements to have his projected judged at the fair.  The part of the online course that appealed most to him was the fact that “soybeans produced in Arkansas go out across the world to help in the fight of world hunger.  The fact that your state ranks within the top five national soybean producing states really says a lot about your state and its soybean production.”  

Before taking the Soybean Science Challenge online course, Evan did not know very much about soybeans except that they were a major crop in Arkansas and were used in many other products.  From his participation in the course, Evan gained much more knowledge about soybeans.  “I learned that soybeans help benefit the world around us and that researching more about viruses in the plant can help the industry.”

Evan’s parents, Anissa and Edmund Buckner were highly pleased that he won the Soybean Science Challenge award.  “We were both out of town and the news was quite a surprise to us, but we knew he had done a lot of work in preparing his project and collecting data,” said Evan’s father.

“Evan’s grandfather was a soil scientist and Evan used to work with him at his farm and talk to him about what he did at work.  Those small conversations undoubtedly sparked a lifelong interest.”

According to his parents, Evan stayed outside for hours just walking around looking at plants and trees and asking about doing gardening projects.  His interest in plant sciences has blossomed over the last three years.

Evan is a multi-talented individual currently taking two math classes with special permission.  His interests vary from gardening to building Legos, playing soccer, the piano and the viola.  He wants to position himself academically to compete for admittance to colleges that are high on his list, particularly Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Evan Buckner with his 1^st Place Certificate and his Soybean Science Challenge award check.

Continuing his research in soybeans by testing more soybean varieties for plant pathogens next year is on his horizon for his junior year science project.  Evan plans to compete again for the Southeast Arkansas Regional Science Fair Soybean Science Challenge award.

Evans’s project was also featured in an Arkansas Democrat article, “Science fair displays students’ ingenuity” in the Sunday, April 5, 2015 edition.

 “The Arkansas Soybean Science Challenge Award program is in its second year and is a partnership between the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service and the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board,” said Dr. Karen Ballard, Extension developer and director of the program.

The Arkansas Soybean Science Challenge was launched in January 2014 to 9-12 grade science students.  Students who successfully completed the online course were eligible to have their original soybean-related research projects judged at the 2015 ISEF affiliated Arkansas science and engineering fairs.

Information on the 2015-16 Arkansas Soybean Science Challenge will be available in summer 2015.  For more information, contact Dr. Karen Ballard or Dr. Lynda Wilson at 501.671.2086 or kballard@uaex.edu.

The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.