A few education-oriented items from around the area:

The Douglas County Science and Engineering Fair continues to evolve.

This year’s big change: There will be no awards ceremony Friday night, as judges instead focus their attention on affixing tiny gold stars to certificates beside each of the more than 120 exhibits entered in the 60th annual fair.

The more stars, the better the science.

“There’s a lot of pressure in school systems and in general to create scientists,” said Dave Nordlund, fair director and retired associate director of information systems at Kansas University. “There’s always a perception that people who have gotten first place and second place and third place, that it really hasn’t been based on the science. That isn’t true, but there’s a perception of that.”

So now, volunteer judges — including graduate students from across the scientific spectrum at KU — will be letting the stars do the talking. Ratings will be based on each entry’s notebook, how the project’s been organized, how much data it includes and other factors.

One thing that won’t change, Nordlund said, is the enthusiasm shown by students and, particularly, the adults who help them.

“Sometimes it’s Mom and Dad, and sometimes it’s Grandma and Grandpa,” Nordlund said. “But the kids get excited.”

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Science and engineering students from Free State High School and Central Junior High School earned medals during the 2011 Kansas Science Olympiad, conducted Saturday at Wichita State University.

Free State High School was among 29 schools to send high school teams to compete in 23 categories. Free State students won:

• A gold medal for finishing first in Remote Sensing, a competition in which teams “use remote sensing imagery, science and math process skills to complete tasks related to an understanding of the causes and consequences of human impact on the environment.”

• A silver medal finishing fourth in Astronomy, in which teams “demonstrate an understanding of the basic concepts of mathematics and physics relating to galaxies.”

• A bronze medal for finishing fourth in Ecology, in which teams “answer questions involving content knowledge and process skills in the area of ecology and adaptations in featured North American biomes.”

Central was among 30 schools to send teams to compete in events for students in junior high and middle schools. Central students won:

• A gold medal in Disease Detectives, in which teams “use their investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health, and disability in populations or groups of people, with a focus on food-borne illness.”

• A silver medal in Awesome Aquifers, in which teams “construct an aquifer and answer questions about groundwater concepts.”

Science Olympiad is intended for students that have an interest in science and engineering who may or may not choose a career in one of those fields. It is organized by the Fairmount Center for Science and Mathematics Education at Wichita State University.

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Tonganoxie schools also sent teams to the 2011 Kansas Science Olympiad in Wichita, and they, too, came back with some bling.

Tonganoxie High School won:

• A gold medal in Anatomy & Physiology, a category that “encompasses the anatomy and physiology of the muscular, respiratory and endocrine systems.”

• A gold medal in Write It Do It, described as follows: “Technical writing skills are an important part of an engineer’s or a scientist’s ability to communicate precisely and clearly. This event will test a competitor’s ability to effectively communicate with a colleague in writing by having his or her partner construct a device from this written description.”

• A silver medal in Optics, an event that “includes activities and questions related to geometric and physical optics.”

• A bronze medal in Disease Detectives.

• A bronze medal in Experimental Design, an event that determines “a team’s ability to design, conduct, and report the findings of an experiment actually conducted on site.”

• A bronze medal in Forensics, in which teams are given “a scenario and some possible suspects,” then instructed to “perform a series of tests” that “along with other evidence or test results, will be used to solve a crime.”

Tonganoxie Middle School teams earned two bronze medals, one in each of these categories:

• Can’t Judge A Powder, in which teams “test and characterize one single substance and then, based only on data they collect, answer a series of questions about that substance.”

• Fossils, in which teams “demonstrate their knowledge of ancient life by completing selected tasks at a series of stations. Emphasis will be on fossil identification and ability to answer questions about classification, habit, ecologic relationships, behaviors and the use of fossils to date and correlate rock units.”