Josh Wayland made his video debut Friday evening at the Water Science Invitational awards ceremony at the Prince William Service Authority headquarters building, curious to see how other students would react at seeing the Osbourn Park student dressed as a monkey.

"I thought I looked very cute and I can see a lot of girls looking at me. I was very pleased," Wayland said.

Wayland said he thought the video, which explained how county residents get their drinking water, was effective.

So did the judges, who awarded him and partners Meaghan Sheehan and Tim Alvey third place and $500.

They joined about 90 other students and their families who met at the service authority headquarters at the McCoart county complex to learn the winners of the science contest.

Wayland, 16, appeared in the video as a favor to his friends and science fair contestants Meaghan Sheehan and Tim Alvey.

Wayland played a monkey called "Curious Bob" and Alvey was the "friendly man in the yellow hat."

"We changed it to Bob so we wouldn't get sued," Alvey, 16, said.

"In case of any copyright violations," Sheehan added.

As the video ran publicly for the first time, Alvey, Sheehan and Wayland watched as students from five area high schools and two home schools laughed at the antics of the monkey and the man in the hat.

"We made it to be a funny video, and I'm glad they laughed," Sheehan said.

Steve Gordon, of the service authority, said this year's second-annual competition for Prince William high school students doubled in participation from last year.

The competition was designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate scientific concepts in a story format rather than by data manipulation and analysis.

"The Water Science Invitational is an alternative science competition," Gordon said, "It emphasizes right-brain skills. Students who participate in the invitational like to express science concepts in ways that can be seen and felt. They enjoy being able to illustrate scientific concepts via video and papering renderings."

The two categories in the competition were "children's book" and "video."

The first-place prize for each category was $1,000. Second-place projects earned $750 and third-place efforts captured $500.

Woodbridge High School student Kim Sager, 16, walked away from the ceremony $1,000 richer for her effort in the contest. Sager's book "Water in Our Home," included poetry and illustrations of cuddly animals.

"I've always wanted to write children's books and it was a really big surprise and a real pleasure and joy to win this award," Sager said after the ceremony.

Her schoolmates Michelle Plant, 16, and Chris Bayne, 18, split $1,000 for their video "Water 101,"

Bayne said at first their motivation was a good grade, but as the project evolved they realized they might have a shot at the prize.

"The original plan was just to get extra credit, but toward the end, we turned out to be pretty greedy," Bayne said.

Teachers of winning students won $500 each.

Other winners in the children's book category include Osbourn Park students Jennie Doll and Katie Hodges, who captured second place, and Woodbridge student Blaire Stone, who won third place.

In the video category, Jessica Witt and Jennifer Modugno from Osbourn Park placed second.