LAPLACE — As part of the District Social Studies Fair, students from all of the public schools in St. John the Baptist Parish gathered Wednesday morning in the St. John the Baptist Parish Community Center to show off their posters and hopefully move on to Regionals.

Shanna Beber, curriculum facilitator for science and social studies for St. John Public Schools, said each school hosts its own school fair.

“They send us the top two in each category and they get to compete for the district,” Beber said. “The top one in each category moves on to the Regional fair, which is in January at Nicholls.”

The category the students, grades fourth through 12th, could compete in were anthropology, economics, history, geography, Louisiana history, sociology and political science.

“This was our first year that we had a really good turn out for our fourth and fifth graders,” Beber said. “With our common core standards, our students are really emerging in the research. This fair is an additional opportunity for them to pick a research topic that they are passionate about. They can conduct research and have the opportunity to demonstrate listening and speaking skills.”

This was Beber’s second year working the fair, and she said the posters blew her away.

“You can see a lot of work was put into these and a lot of time,” she said.

One pair of students Beber pointed out scored a perfect score by the judges.

“The judges just raved about that project,” Beber said. “They said they got a perfect 100. They knew all the answers to the questions, and you could see the girls’ excitement. You could tell they enjoyed the topic and they knew a lot about it. Both of the girls spoke equally and both knew the answers.”

The team in question included Lizette Orejel and Janneth Lopez from Lake Pontchartrain Elementary. They were the only ones in geography, but it didn’t guaranty them a spot at Regionals. Their perfect score of 100 did that.

The two girls did their project on “How The Southern Colonies Came To Be.”

“The southern colonies include North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia,” Orejel said.

“Our model is of the Southern Colony English Church. They didn’t actually say where it was located, but we know its somewhere in the southern colonies.”

The students picked the topic because they felt the church and different facts about the colonies were interesting.

The Southern Colony English Church was founded by Henry VIII, who broke from the Roman Catholic Church when the pope refused his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

“It was a cemetery and a church,” Orejel said.

“You go in and have an ordinary church but sometimes they would also have funerals and they were also buried there.”

The girls explained a little bit of history about each of the colonies, like how they got their names. Georgia was named after King George II of England, and Maryland was named after King Charles I’s wife, Queen Henrietta Maria.

“The providence of Maryland existed between 1663 until the year 1776,” Lopez said.

The girls also went on to say Virginia was the first successful Southern colony because of its crops.

Lopez added it was the first colony to be a royal colony.

Lopez also talked about how North and South Carolina used to be joined.

“It was too big for one governor and one assembly to manage the whole colony,” she said. “So they decided to split into north and south.”

Both girls said their favorite part of the project was building the model church.

“We had so many things and recycled a lot of stuff, like cardboard from old boxes that we used to move,” Orejel said. “The grass is made out of paint, toilet paper, water and glue.”

The glue was used to add texture as it dried.

Lopez enjoyed working on the church and how it came out.

“We colored and painted the cardboard to make the tombs,” she said. “And, we got the rocks for the park and hot glued them on. It was just amazing how we did it.”

The St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District held its District Social Studies Fair Wednesday at the St. John Civic Center. The impressive group of projects this year included eight that the judges awarded perfect scores. First-place winners will move on to the regional competition at Nicholls State University in January. District winners were:

Division 1

Anthropology: Norelle Frank, first, Daylen Jackson, second, Ramyah Johnson, third; Anthropology team: Lori Lennix and Angelina Agular, first, Savannah Banks and Destiny Chartain, second; History: Ta’Riyna Baker, first and perfect score, Kylin Smith, second, George Martin, third; Sociology: Kylie Johnson, first, Kyle Cannon, second, Tayah Cook, third; Louisiana History: Jaden Porter, first, Akyja Tuircuit, second, Kailee Edwards, third; Economics: Jason Parker, first, Jaymon Jasmine, second, Briahn Duhe, third; Geography: Matalynne Bruckhart, first, Ronnie Buggs, second; Geography team: Lizette Orgel and Janet Lopez, first place and perfect score; Political Science: Donrell Lumar, first, Kaden Foster, second, Guadloupe Reyes, third.

Division II

Sociology: Madison Boudreaux, first and perfect score, Jai Gaines, second, Aniah Newman, third; Geography: Jenna Necaise, first and perfect score, Katllyn Willis, second, Bryce Ory, third; Geography team: Ana Cruz and Gabrielle Robinson, first, Spiritual Holmes and Donae Rudolph, second; Louisiana History: Christopher Hammett, first and perfect score; Treyvon Johnson, second; Roberta Holmes, third; Louisiana History team: Christopher White and Jeremiah Jackson, third; Economics: Christopher Taylor, first and perfect score, Jada Brown, second, Jason August, third; Anthropology: Tiffany Champagne, first and perfect score, Evan Wombles, second, Amari Gayden, third; Political Science: Christian Coleman, first, Victoria Upshaw, second, Kaitlyn Narcisse, third; History: Brandon Couste, first, Madyson Mays, second, Jada Nevers, third; History team: Clinton Smith and Issac Cummings, first, Harley Laeylorie and Kailin Zhoe, second.

Division III

Sociology: John Gayden, first and perfect score, Chelsey Cook, second; Sociology team: Alan Burl and Corey Mitchell, first; History: Ria Edwards, first, Tyron Gordon, second; History team: Marcus Boudoin and Chantz Harris, third; Anthropology: Loren Aubert, first; Anthropology team: Kiron Armant and Landon Perrilloux, first, Jaquisha Dates and Burnell Hall, second; Louisiana History: Darrell Bailey, first; Louisiana History team: Aisha Lacey and Maria Nunoz, first; Political Science team: MaKayla Perrier and Fred Turner, first.

Division IV

History: Sara Soso, first; Anthropology: Joann Herrera, first; Louisiana History: Alexis Dusang, first, Christian Anderson, second.

By Raquel Derganz Baker