Williston State College's old gymnasium was warm and buzzing with activity Wednesday afternoon.

Students sat at long tables side by side with their colorful science projects lined up in rows as judges walked by, taking notes and leaning forward to get better glimpses of the projects.

Some students leaned over to talk to their neighbors, while others read books or used their laptop computers. Still others crowded around their friends to chit chat. Most all of the students were dressed in their Sunday best for the annual Northwest Regional Science and Engineering Fair.

Taylor Anderson, a Tioga High School ninth grader, stood proudly next to her project "Wipe Out." For the project, she tested various brands of toilet paper to find out which ones were the most and least biodegradable.

"You hear people wanting to go green all the time. I thought it'd be a cool idea," Anderson said. As a result, Anderson found that Smooth Soft, the brand used at Tioga High School, and Cotton Bud, a brand used specifically for camping, were the most biodegradable because they were thinner.

"I liked finding out the results myself. I hadn't seen anyone do it before," Anderson said.

Jacob Stockman, a sophomore at Williston's Trinity Christian School, studied what beverages caused damage to human teeth. Stockman soaked baby teeth in seven different liquids for 48 hours. The ones that lost the most weight, due to acid eating away the calcium of the teeth, were in the liquids that are worse for one's teeth.

He said the beverage that caused the most damage isn't necessarily more acidic, but it has a mineral that can be harmful to teeth. When asked if that worried him, he said it didn't, he just makes sure to take care of his teeth.

Meagan McGinnity, a freshman at Tioga High School, made her own lip gloss. Her plan was to test three different flavors of lip gloss to determine which one was best. McGinnity was certain mint would be the favorite, but her testers liked almond best. She also made vanilla.

Her project called "My Lip Gloss is Poppin'!" after a recent pop hit is one of many projects Wednesday that had catchy names. The three people who tested the lip gloss rated each flavor based on the smell, look and feel, she said.

Charalyn Vondall's project tested the reading abilities of 50 students when certain elements of paragraphs are deleted. The Trenton High School junior had her subjects read a paragraph with transposed letters, one in which letters were omitted, one in which vowels were replaced with symbols and normal paragraphs.

The students read the paragraph with transposed letters in a 54-second average, but it took them 77 seconds to read the paragraphs with the vowels replaced with symbols and 88 seconds to read paragraphs with omitted letters. The normal paragraphs took students an average of 27 seconds to read, she said.

One project had colored Christmas lights blinking to music. Christian Vachal's Synchronized Lights experiment determined what causes Christmas lights to blink in various modes: FM radio stations or little devices called solid state relays.

Vachal said he'd always wondered what made the lights blink in synchronized rhythm. The Trinity Christian School eighth grader enjoyed his project.

"I liked that I got to work with electronics," he said.

Some students agreed they liked the opportunity to be out of school for a day and be around their friends. Other students had different reasons to enjoy the science fair.

"It's my second year of being here; it's a pretty good experience," Vondall said.

The fair day was a special day for Anderson as it was her birthday.

"I'm 15 today," she said.

The list of fair winners will be published once the information is made available.