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WILMINGTON -- A seventh grader recently earned top honors for his science project. And now, Chad Champbell will soon travel to Washington, D.C. to compete for a $25,000 education prize during a national science fair event.

It started with a question: are their antibiotics in grocery store meats?

"The bad part about having antibiotics in local grocery store meats is that it further leads to antibiotics resistance," said Campbell, a student at Topsail Middle School.

Earlier this year, he took first place at the Southeast Regional Science Fair. His tests found the presence of antibiotics in more than 10 percent of the meat samples he took. He would go on to win first place in the State Science and Engineering Fair as well.

Campbell's science teacher says these projects are incredibly complex.

"This is not something that they do in the classroom for a week," said Heather Fennell. "this is something that they have to do for months to prepare for."

The work being done by young people like Campbell is impressive. He says it starts with a desire to learn.

"I loved animals and science and things like that and it was always my favorite subject," he said. "I feel i'm going to be something like my career is going to have to do at science."

And he's already off to a head start.

"I think that it doesn't matter how old you are, you can still make a difference," said Campbell.