Back in the early days of the 2011 spring flood, 9-yearold Mac Vroman, a thirdgrader at Bowmar Magnet School, took a trip on U.S. 61 North with his family.

“We saw them putting up the dirt levee around Redwood School, and Mac asked his father if it would hold,” his mother, Ashley Vroman, said.

That question to his father, Noah, an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District, led to an idea for a science fair project that earned Mac several awards at the state Regional Science Fair at Jackson State University in Jackson, including the top award in his classification — Best of Fair.

It was one of three individual awards he received, including first place in the botany category and a special award from the JSU College of Science, Engineering and Technology.

He was one of 10 Bowmar students to win awards at the regional science fair.

“We won a total of 18 awards,” said Bowmar Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, lab teacher Tondia Ferracci. “We had five first-place winners and seven special awards. We also won the Class 1 School Award for grades first through third.

“I don’t remember any school in the district getting a sweep like that since I’ve been a teacher,” said Ferracci, who has been teaching at Bowmar for nine years. “This is great for our school. This is great for our district.”

“I am really pleased,” Bowmar principal Tammy Burris said. “This is a great accomplishment for our school. It’s a big deal for us and the district.”

Ferracci said Bowmar is in its first year as a STEM school, and is one of five in the district. The other schools are Dana Road Elementary, Vicksburg Intermediate, Sherman Avenue Elementary and Warren Central Intermediate.

The STEM program teaches students about math and science by encouraging participation in the classroom.

“We’re not ‘spitting’ the facts to them,” Ferracci said. “We’re not just throwing information out and giving it to them, we’re getting them to look for the answers. The kids love it.”

During the STEM class, students are given a problem or question and taught how to work together to reach a solution.

She and Burris credit the STEM program for students’ performance at Jackson State.

Mac’s project was an example of the STEM lessons. It involved finding

the best material to make levees stronger and resistant to erosion.

“I used peat moss,” he said. “It made the levees stronger because

the roots held the dirt together. It wasn’t very loose.”

He said it was great to receive the top award, but added he didn’t know he had won it until his classmates told him.

“They kept telling me, ‘Mac! Mac! Get up there (to the stage)!’ I thought somebody was just calling my name,” he said.

His mother said Mac was following in the footsteps of his older brother, Tyler, now a student at Warren Central Junior High, who also did a science project on levees when he was in the third grade at Bowmar.

“Levees,” she said, “are a tradition in our family.”