MOULTRIE — Two Colquitt County High School (CCHS) seniors took first place in their divisions at the recent state science fair in Athens.

Luke White, 17, won first place in environmental management and also was distinguished with two special awards: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “Taking The Pulse of The Planet Award” and a special award in honor of regional science fair director Dr. David Martin of Darton College.

White found a unique use for Alka-Seltzer — to clean up oil spills. He used it as a source of carbon dioxide and added it to magnetorheological fluid, an iron and oil mixture that solidifies near a magnet. The Alka-Seltzer pushed the oil to the outside, which allowed him to then use a magnet to pick up the oily mass.

Ashley Jimenez, 17, placed first in environmental analysis with her experiments using prickly pear cactus to purify water.

She was able to successfully remove heavy metals from 1,000-milliliter water samples tainted with mercury, lead nitrate and silver nitrate with two pods of cactus. The contaminants deposited to the bottom of the sample, and purified water remained at the top. Through more experiments, Jimenez determined that the more cactus used, the more effective the purification.

Two other CCHS science fair students placed at state. Andrew Clark, 16, sophomore, won second place in chemistry for his analysis of motor oil volatility. Clark heated five brands of synthetic oil, racing oil Amsoil, racing oil Redline, Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum and Wal-Mart brand SuperTech, in a deep fryer, and found that Amsoil was the least volatile, while SuperTech was the most in comparison group.

Laura Robinson, 15, sophomore, placed third in physics with her comparison of a scuba diver’s air consumption in salt and fresh spring waters.

Robinson, a scuba diver since the age of 12, conducted dives at 33 and 66 feet and timed how long it took for she and her father to use a certain amount of air in their tanks. Her calculations determined that more air is consumed diving in salt water.