Rappahannock County has always been on the map for

Rappahannock County has always been on the map for beauty. But now it’s on the map for science as well, due entirely to a dedicated teacher and dedicated students,” said Superintendent David Gangel as he presented a plaque from the School Board to representatives of the Rappahannock County High School physics class last week. “This was not just a science experiment. You were really on the cutting edge of technology.”

“We’re especially proud of the work you did on your own time,” sajd Chairman Beverly Massie. . “They know what to do. They’re self-directed!” high school Principal John Toth added.

What was it that brought such praise for teacher Brion Patterson and 11 RCHS students? Merely the duplication of work which won the • 1987 Nobel Prize for Physics. -? The project, suggested by RCHS graduate Richard Tribino, began .over the Christmas holidays when Hhe students gathered at the high ■school to grind, mix, and heat copper, barium, and yttrium in a pains.taking process that went on for 14 'hours.

Later the powder was-taken to -George Mason University (where •Tribino is a science major) to be ^pressed into pellets, then back to the !RCHS kiln for another round of heating at 1,650 degrees. Finally, the pellets were carefully and slowly cooled to minus 320 degrees. > The long hours of monitoring -temperature gauges on the cranky Shop class kiln paid off when three of the four disks levitated a tiny magnet in liquid oxygen, proof that the RCHS students had made actual sujperconductors.

k Not only the Rappahannock News but also the Richmond Times Dispatch reported the feat, accomplished to date by only two other 'nigh schools in the United States.

Since the publicity on the experiment, Sean Wayland, one of the -RCHS scientists, has been asked “at 'least 50 times” to explain what su