RACINE - All kinds of performers have made their way to the stage of television's hottest talent show, "American Idol." Mitchell Middle School, though, is probably the first venue to put animal cells in the competitive spotlight.

A "Cell Idol" contest was held recently at the middle school, 2701 Drexel Ave., in which models of animal cells were the contestants. The artistic models - which were created by students in middle school science classes using everything from Styrofoam balls to baked cakes, candy and Christmas lights - were displayed in a Cell Museum, which was set up in the school's cafeteria. And students from both the middle school and Mitchell Elementary School were invited to visit the museum and vote for their favorite cell.

And the winners were …

n First place - "Viva La Cell" by Jose Perez, Jon Ruiz-Martinez and Maleni Moya.

n Second place - "Princess Cell" by Jessmarie Centeno.

n Third place - "Packman 3D" by Derrick Jones.

n Fourth place - Tie between "Taste the Rainbow" by Jasmine Flagg and Ryan Saldivar, and "Zackanellamiro" by Zach Cook, Casimiro Rivas and Zarnell Massie.

n Fifth place - " Cancun Christmas" by Nicole Panka and Diana Meyer.

Both the museum and contest grew out of a class project that is designed to help students understand the form and function of animals cells. About 125 students were involved in the project which started with research about scientists who were instrumental in the cell's discovery, and was completed with the three-dimensional, cut-away models that depict a cell's insides, including its nucleus, mitochondria and cytoplasm.

Along the way, students created cartoons that showed what each scientist contributed to the discovery of the cell, and made "cell folders" that represented the different parts of a cell.

"It was a long process and the models were the culmination of a lot of hard work by the students," said Kim Wendt, the Mitchell Middle School science teacher who coordinated the Cell Museum and "Cell Idol" contest.

It was also a ton of fun, say all involved.

"It was fun because we actually got to put everything together ourselves and that helped me to understand cells better," said Jessmarie Centeno, whose model took second place. The eighth-grader also enjoyed the social aspect of the contest, which brought students and faculty together, she said.

"Everyone really got involved and did they best they could," Centeno said. "We all gave it 110 percent."

Jose Perez, 14, was not only part of the team that took first place in the "Cell Idol" contest, he also contributed to the overall project by drawing portraits of the three school principals as they would look if they were judges for "American Idol". The drawings of Simon "Whilhelmi" Cowell, Paula "Jensen" Abdul and Randy "Nason" Jackson - which are well done - hung on the wall outside Wendt's classroom, across the hall from the cafeteria.

"It was a lot of work, but it was fun too," Perez said of all he put into the project. "It gave me a good understanding of how cells work and what they do for our bodies. I was amazed that something so tiny can actually hold DNA."

Such hands-on learning is something that eighth-grader Zarnell Massie said he really enjoys about Wendt's class, as well.

"I actually remembered most of the parts of the cell, even after we were done with the project," he said.

While her classes had made cell models before, they had never taken the project to this level, said Wendt, who has taught at Mitchell Middle School for four years. She came up with the idea for the "Cell Idol" contest hoping that it would get her students excited about their work and help them to be more focused on their study of the cell. The results, she said, just "blew me away."

"It just turned into this amazing thing," Wendt said. "This year's class was incredibly creative. Kids were campaigning for their cells, making flyers and asking people to vote for them. And the more they got into it the more I found to do."

Students at Mitchell Elementary School also got to share in the excitement when they visited the cafeteria, which Wendt transformed into the Cell Museum for a day.

"All of the kids who visited seemed so interested," she said. "You could see their faces just light up when they saw all the cells."