Exploding yeast, space trash and potato guns are just a few examples of the projects students at St. Mary’s put together for the school’s annual science fair. Students in first through seventh grade participated, using what’s known as the scientific method to develop a hypothesis, research and conduct experiments, develop analyses from their observations and then draw conclusions.
“Does it Bounce” was the title of the project put together by sixth-graders Emma and Dagney. Their goal was to see if temperature affects how high a basketball bounces.
“The hot ball bounced higher,” Emma said.
Both girls said they enjoy playing basketball, which is why they chose that subject matter.
“It was fun to find out what would happen if we played basketball outside,” Dagney said.
The purpose behind science fairs is to gets kids interested in science and math and teach them analytical thinking. So science fair promoters should be heartened when Emma said, “An experiment makes you have more questions, and then you experiment on those questions.”
One of the more visual projects was called “Explosive Yeast.” The goal here was to see how yeast reacts when it is exposed to different amounts of hydrogen peroxide and to test the temperature when different amounts of yeast and hydrogen peroxide are combined. Picture putting a whole package of Alka Seltzer into a glass of water and you get the idea.
Some students took on projects with a social edge, such as “Who Will Take Out the Space Trash?” Seventh-grader Jeffrey explained, “In 1975 we had absolutely zero space trash, and now we have more than 15,000 pieces that are larger than 10 centimeters and they’re going 17,500 mph.”
So Jeffrey built a Lego robot named Rocky with the idea that NASA could use a ground-controlled robot that would float around and pick up space debris.
“Success would be if he could capture it in his hand,” Jeffrey said. Rocky did pick up 60 percent of the blocks he went after and 40 percent of the rocks.
Not everyone’s hypotheses were correct, however. “The Amazing Potato Gun” was designed to determine if the size of a potato and the amount of hairspray used to fire it through a PVC pipe would make a difference in the distance the potato traveled. The students thought a smaller potato would go the farthest, but their experiment showed the bigger potatoes went further.
“The hardest part is analysis,” science teacher Lynne Dickerson said. “What story does the title tell you? They have to support it with their data and then I tell them they have to communicate it in writing and presentations and through one-to-one interaction. So they really understand the science behind their project.”
Students who are in the sixth and seventh grades were judged on their projects, with seventh-graders Justin Brackett and Christopher Lanoie taking the top honor for “Hi-Yah: The Need for Speed.” They recorded the force of nine black belts’ karate kicks.
Some students plan to take their projects to the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship, which is the county-wide science fair that will be held on March 16 and 17 at the San Jose Convention Center.
