About four years ago, Anita Babb got a mysterious phone call from the post office about a package that she needed to pick up immediately.

It was bees. Her husband and her then 10-year-old son Russell (who's now 14) were starting a hobby, and they hadn't told her about it.

"I did not know they were starting this hobby," Anita Babb said. "They probably would have gotten shut down if I would have known."

Russell's experiments with solitary bees last year have landed him a spot as a semi-finalist in the 2007 Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge. He's one of 16 Utah students who were selected as semi-finalists.

Lisa Clarke oversees the Central Utah Science and Engineering Fair, which includes Utah County students. Students who do well in the fair may apply for the Young Scientist Challenge. She said the children learn a lot from the projects -- they learn how to do research and math and to write.

There are 400 semi-finalists nationwide. The group will be narrowed down to 40 finalists on Sept. 12, who will take a trip to Washington, D.C., in October and compete for thousands of dollars in college scholarships. The Young Scientist Challenge is for students in fifth- through eighth-grades. According to a news release, the contest recognizes students who "demonstrate leadership, teamwork, scientific problem-solving and the ability to be an effective science communicator." The qualifying science fair projects this year include the fields of biochemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering and zoology.

Russell's project is an example of scientific problem-solving. He was doing some research about an infected beehive when he stumbled on information about solitary bees. He thought solitary bees might be nesting in a banister outside his house, and he decided to find out what kind of holes the bees like to nest in.

The project of another local semi-finalist, 13-year-old Spencer Bagley, involves math. Bagley, who's from Cedar Hills, wondered what the best shape was for a light-powered oven. In order to find out, Bagley created a mathematical formula to find the best place to cook food inside parabola-shaped aluminum foil inside the oven. He found that steep parabolas work better.

Kimber Conlin, a science teacher whose son was just named a semi-finalist for the third year in a row, said science fair projects teach students to solve their own problems.

"Being smart or learning just facts isn't enough," Conlin said. "Memorizing knowledge is something from the 1800s."

Conlin said students need to be able to see a problem and come up with ways to fix it, like they do in science.

Russell Babb has been solving his own problems with bees. He said beekeeping is fun because he gets to see the bees up close without being stung. In the four years he has been taking care of his hives, he has only been stung once.

Stephen Babb, Russell's father, is glad he ordered the bees because Russell has learned so much. Russell does a lot of reading on his own and is becoming proficient in bee lingo.

"He can talk at length about bees and beekeeping," Stephen Babb said.

Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at blusk@heraldextra.com.

Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge semi-finalists from the Utah County area:

Spencer Bagley of Cedar Hills (Mountain Ridge Junior High School)

Russell Babb of Highland (Mountain Ridge Junior High School)

Madisyn Klein of Lehi (Sego Lily Elementary School)

Christian Minton of Provo (Meridian School)

Yalaina Linford of Spanish Fork (Spanish Oaks Elementary School)

Kayson Conlin of Heber City (Rocky Mountain Middle School)

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.