An unusual interest for an 11-year-old boy earned him high praise and nearly won him a big competition.
Bryan Garcia took something he saw on his parents' farm to the classroom and ultimately a state science competition.
Garcia is from the small town of Woody, 35 miles northeast of Bakersfield. He's one of only five students in his entire class. But, that didn't stop him from taking on other students from across the state.
It started when Garcia witnessed how penicillin helped one of his father's cows from its death bed, to get back up and start walking again like normal. That sparked the boy's interest and he wanted to learn more.
He turned it into a research project and ended up one of the top five finalists in the California History-Social Science Project.
Garcia got to meet with doctors, the Kern County Public Health Department, and he even toured one of their labs to see penicillin-destroying bacteria.
Garcia hopes to continue his research to help others. He even gave 17 News a little science lesson.
"To like learn something new that would help the world. One of the things that was really surprising was that penicillin is a poison, but it doesn't affect human cells because ours are shaped different and are harder than other cells," he explained.
Garcia's teacher says he's an honor student who excels at everything in the classroom. The sixth grader hopes his passion for science will help him become a biochemist.
