Fifth-graders exhibited creative projects at Russell C. Struble Elementary science fair
By Samantha Bambino
The Times
Russell C. Struble fifth-grader Hayley was so dedicated to her science fair project, she dyed her hair electric blue to match it. Proudly standing next to her carefully crafted poster board, she animatedly explained the experiment she conducted to either prove or disprove her hypothesis — a white flower would change color when placed in colored water for one to two days. Turns out, Hayley was correct, and she had an egg carton of daisies with blue-streaked petals to prove it.
Hayley’s creative “Observe Colorful Transformation” project was one of many at Struble’s fifth-grade science fair, which was held Tuesday, April 3, in Bensalem. Throughout the day, the rest of the elementary school took shifts to visit the gymnasium where the posters were displayed. As the fifth-graders described their respective experiments, they exuded an air of intelligence beyond that of the average 10 year old.
According to Struble’s science coordinator, Marcella Reppenhagen, the students began working on their projects in December, with each given the freedom to self-select an experiment to conduct. There were just a few simple requirements, including the statement of a hypothesis (or prediction of what would happen), a breakdown of the experiment and, most importantly, the ability to think outside the box.
“It’s fun and problem-solving,” Reppenhagen said.
The students took each of those guidelines to heart, especially the last one. No two projects were alike, and each forced the onlooker to think about aspects of daily life in a new way.
Inspired by her and her friend’s furry companions Mazy, Phoebe and Reggie, fifth grader Addison’s project “To Lick, or Not to Lick?” tested whether a human’s mouth is cleaner than a dog’s. To help prove her prediction that humans carry fewer germs, Addison swabbed the mouths of the three dogs, her friends Nina and Leann, as well as herself. The samples were placed in petri dishes and studied under a microscope.
“Both were really gross, but one was cleaner,” she explained.
Addison’s hypothesis that a dog’s mouth has more germs was correct, though she was taken aback by the results.
“One thing that I was surprised about in this project was that Mazy’s mouth wasn’t as dirty as I expected,” she said. “Mazy is a dog who eats everything. She can eat Kong toys and the bottoms of crates.”
In true scientist fashion, Addison included a brief self-critiquing paragraph on her poster explaining what she could’ve done better throughout the project. If she was to conduct the experiment again, she would be more consistent in how she streaked the petri dishes, which she said could have affected how the germs looked and how easy it was to count them.
Just as Addison incorporated her love of dogs into her project, classmate Erin utilized her passion for candy. In her experiment, entitled “Gummy Bears in Liquids,” Erin set out to discover how/if gummy bears alter their shape when placed in various liquids. On her poster, she outlined the “data” collected by showing pictures of the bears’ fate after spending time in plain water, water with baking soda, salt water and root beer. According to Erin’s findings, root beer was the only liquid that caused the gummy bear to grow. The rest either shrunk it or turned it to mush.
Dozens of other projects were featured at the science fair, each just as unique and well thought out as the next. While a number of students focused on answering standard science questions, such as whether sand, salt or sugar makes ice melt faster, others took a more out-of-the-box approach, testing ideas such as whether cola can dissolve a steak.
Still, that was the beauty of the assignment. The students were able to apply what they learned in class to a real-world problem they were curious about, all while having fun in the process. ••
Samantha Bambino can be reached at [email protected]
