The winner for the 2014 District Science Fair was a nervous girl among all participants who were freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors.

“I always thought it would be a great honor to make it to regional science fair,” freshman Katherine Melito said. “I was overjoyed that I did.”

Melito, the winner of the 2014 District Science Fair, studied whether men and women perceive colors differently. She used human participants and researched for weeks.

“I researched the difference in color visibility between men and women, as well as how the human eye functions and can perceive color,” Melito said. “I also researched the genetics behind this topic and its evolutionary history. I found a really good article that had a lot of information.”

Melito never expected to win the science fair and proceed on to the next level.

“I literally just jumped up and down when I saw my name next to the first place slot,” Melito said. “It was such an amazing feeling. I never thought I’d go on to Regional Science Fair.”

Melito’s hypothesis stated that women would perceive color more than men, but her results did not agree with her hypothesis

“I became really worried when I found out that my results contradicted my hypothesis,” Melito said. “But after talking through it with my family, I was able to reach a conclusion.”

For the whole duration of the project, Melito got in touch with men and women to perform the experiment on.

“My favorite part was getting to be a real scientist,” Melito said. “Conducting my own experiment and reaching my own conclusion really made me feel like I was a real working scientist.”

Melito never truly felt as though she wanted to give up.

“It took me a while to choose my topic, so I chose one I knew I would continue to be interested in over a long period of time,” said Melito. “It was always pretty interesting.”

Melito’s board was thought of as one of the best boards.

“I thought that Katherine’s board was really nice,” freshman Jessica Minne said. “I was positive she would win. That’s how amazing her board was. She didn’t like she was nervous at all.”