De Soto High School had its annual Social Studies & Science Presentation night on April 17. More than 170 juniors and even some students from other grade levels participated in the night showing off their specific research projects.

“For teachers it’s an opportunity to bring the community in to see what students have been doing throughout the year and see what student can do,” said social studies teacher Matt Rice. “We have a desire to connect our community in any way we can to the school and that’s one of the ways we do it.”

Students in science classes had the opportunity to do an individual research project for extra credit. The topics had a wide range, from what makes the sky blue to physics equations to cat anatomy.

On the Social Studies end of it, juniors enrolled in US History were required to research and present a project under the topic question, “What does America mean to you?”

“People seemed really interested in the cat dissections,” said junior Olivia Strauser. “There were some other really interesting science presentations too.”

Students received many compliments on their individual projects, but many had hoped that more people had shown up to see the displays.

“I don’t think it was as well advertised. Usually random people show up, but there weren’t that many people this year,” said junior Ashton Riffel. “But the people that did show up said the topics were original and interesting.”

Although students didn’t get as many views as they had wished, many teachers were still pleased on how the night went.

“I think it was the best so far that I’ve seen in my three years here,” said science teacher Laura Sixta. “There were a lot of cool projects that were out there so I hope it’ll keep increasing from here.”

DHS looks forward to hosting another great night of presentations next year.