Have you been wondering which type of yogurt molds fastest? Or what sort of metal carbonates best? Looking for a device to speed your lagging reaction times?
Those questions and problems, along with many more, were posed and pondered by students who participated Thursday in a science and engineering fair at the Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo.
The students in elementary and middle school hail from 16 schools in the West Suburban Consortium for Academic Excellence and from Cass Middle School in Westmont and Eisenhower Junior High School in Darien.
The fair featured 108 projects and 155 participants. One of them was Jack Bergman, 14, an 8th grader from Park Junior High in La Grange Park.
Because he is involved in a variety of sports, he wondered what he could create to improve athletes’ reaction times. He used pipe to fashion an air compressor that shoots ping pong balls and challenges a person to swat the ball with their hand.
“The ping pong balls go all over the place,” he said “It makes you more focused on the ball. It good for hand-eye coordination and you get better at tracking the ball,” he said.
Amanda Rodriguez, 11, and Megan Mahoney, 12, who both attend LaGrange Highlands Middle School, wondered about which type of candle, white or colored, burns faster. The hypothesized that the colored one would melt quicker because it is dyed.
They discovered, however, that the white candles they used had a shorter wick and burned quicker.
Megan, who lives in Indian Head Park, was not sorry their hypothesis didn’t hold true under testing.
“I wasn’t disappointed,” she said. “Because now we know why one melts faster.”
Amanda, of Western Springs, said she also thinks the experiment was worthwhile.
“For future reference I will know which kind of candle to buy,” she said.
James Simnick, senior technical adviser for BP America, which sponsored the science fair, was a judge. He was impressed by the students’ efforts.
“I’m just blown away,” the Naperville resident said. “The future of science, technology, engineering and math, if gauged by these projects, is in good hands.”
He said the fair is a good way for students to improve their science and engineering expertise and to practice other skills such as explaining their project and simply making eye contact with the judges. Eighty judges from different corporations and zoo staff and volunteers served as judges.
Schools nominated students for the fair.
“Many of the students use this as a practice before going to regionals,” said Marjorie Baker, school program coordinator for the zoological society. “Others use it to get inspiration for future scientific endeavors.”
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Even if some experiments didn’t fall in line with the students’ conjectures, their efforts were not wasted.
Scientific experiments may provide answers, but more importantly, Baker said they also spur questions and lead to more discoveries.
The candle project done by Amanda and Megan, for instance, “is a starting point. It sparks more questions. Science is never done,” she said.
Top Places
Fifth grade
First place went to Peter Mikulski of Forest Hills Elementary School in Western Springs for his project Testing Western Springs Water; second place went to Anastasia Galinski of Gower Middle School for All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men; third place went to Maggie Pabst of Forest Hills Elementary for Pencil Resistors.
Sixth grade
Sarah Schultz of Highlands Middle School took first for Is it possible to desalinate water using holding products; second place went to Ana Babnigg of Ideal Elementary in Countryside for Can fish sense electricity; and third place went to Sophia Lee and Rama Bhagwat of Butler Junior High in Oak Brook for Testing for Electrolytes in Beverages.
Seventh and 8th grade
Dhruv Vaze of Gower Middle School took first for Brighter Future LED; Colin Flueck and Daniel Kiely of McClure Junior High School in Western Springs were second for Windpower: Which number of blades produces the most power?; and third place went to Joshua Baron and Jared Herchenbach of Cass Middle School in Westmont for Doesn’t the Density of wood affect the time it takes to drill?
Future Scientist award
BP America gave Future Scientists Awards to Sophie Klyber of Central Elementary School in Riverside for Does Bouncy Ball temperature affect bounce height?; to Matthew Ozark of Laidlaw Elementary in Western Springs for The Better Battery; Colin Flueck and Daniel Kiely took second for Windpower: Which number of blades produces the most power?; and Mark Orbon and Irvin Ortiz of Hester Junior High in Franklin Park for Engineering a Pinocchio Nose.
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