CONWAY -- The bionic hand fashioned by 14-year-old Destany Ballard can hold and pick up objects that are as heavy as 2 pounds.

Relying on rubber bands, sturdy plastic bars and a simple system of pulling the two with a chain, the mechanical hand can be made at home at a low cost, Destany said, which could help a person who can't afford higher-technology prosthetics.

Destany, a freshman at Buffalo Island Central High School in Monette in northeast Arkansas, presented the hand Saturday at the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair held at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. She was among about 250 high school students who displayed their theories and inventions.

Students mingled with new friends and their parents on the Jeff Farris Health and Physical Education Center gym floor, which was covered Saturday in tables and colorful tri-fold poster boards. The students ate cookies and awaited a decision about who would be selected to take part in the national science fair competition later this year.

The projects spanned the vast imaginations of Arkansas high school students: a behavioral study of what motivated people to sleep more hours at night, a somewhat stomach-turning study on the decomposition of ants and their release of oleic acid, and the ambitious "Enhancement of the Photocurrent Response of Tungsten Nano-Structures Using an Indium Oxide Coating," a project undertaken by three Little Rock Central High School students.

The event also had a robot, designed to follow lines and make turns while propelling itself.

Destany came up with the idea for a bionic hand last year after realizing that many soldiers return from combat having lost limbs. Concerned about the cost of replacing limbs, Destany decided to see what she could do to help.

"People spend a lot of money on hands," she said.

Since January, Destany has spent Tuesdays and Thursdays after school constructing the hand. Next year, Destany wants to create a voice-command system that would trigger the mechanical fingers to move.

Other science and engineering fair entrants have spent multiple years putting together their projects.

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Science fair displays students' ingenuity