Eastbayri.com

PORTSMOUTH — Students in the seventh and eighth grades gave it their all recently for the chance to compete in the Rhode Island Science and Engineering Fair in March.

Six of the more than 400 students who participated (see sidebar) will head to the competition at the Community College of Rhode Island Warwick campus on March 17 and 18 to compete against peers from all over the state.

The students started in November with a topic that interested them and developed questions, said Science Curriculum Coordinator Christine Homen. They then decided on a single question to test.

“When you don’t pigeonhole them into topics, they really do [end up with great projects],” she said. “They’re topics they really enjoy.”

Shane Buddemeyer plays basketball with friends and had fun testing what types of surfaces caused the ball to bounce highest.

He thought wood and concrete would be best for bouncing, but discovered rubber courts are actually the best. Grass surfaces were the worst.

For self-described “germ-a-phobe” Leah Berwick, her project was an opportunity to prove to her parents and little brothers that bacteria really is everywhere.

She tested 12 locations in the kitchen and bathroom to see which had more bacteria. She hypothesized there would be more bacteria in the kitchen because there are more “hiding spots” and it is used more often.

She was right — the kitchen sink faucet was the worst and the refrigerator door had the same amount as the toilet seat.

This was the second year that seventh grade participated in the fair and the first for eighth graders.

“Some of the eighth grade students took their project from last year and expanded on it from last year,” Ms. Homen said.

For eighth grader Maddie Hobbs, an honorable mention winner, it was an opportunity to once again create a colorful tri-fold board.

Last year she tested how different colors of paint dried in different types of light. This year, she tested color gender stereotypes.

She asked 10 students each in fourth and eighth grade to color a princess and truck. Four gender stereotype colors and two neutral colors were offered to them.

“I found out that the eighth graders colored the gender stereotypes more,” she said. “The older you get the more stereotypes you follow.”

Other students got their questions from everyday life.

For Kyle Hinton it was a recent vacation on a cruise that made him wonder why the boat didn’t sink. He tested how much salt is needed to make an egg float in water.

With no salt, the egg sinks to the bottom, he said. With 60 ml of salt, the egg “flinks” — neither floating or sinking. It took 90 ml to make the egg float.

He said taking salinity into account is important in boat-making, especially for boats that traverse both salt and fresh water.

Multiple projects had focuses on different aspects of everyday sweets.

Sarah Handel looked at which type of sweetener was perceived as sweetest — sugar, Splenda, or Truvia. No one found sugar sweetest, she said, although if she did the project again she would have more testers to make the results more accurate.

When Abbey Gerber put her baby teeth into cups filled with soda and let them sit, she thought regular Coca-Cola would have the worst affect on them because it had the most sugar.

It turned out that Diet Coke was worst — after a time, the soda actually split its tooth. Root beer was best for the tooth, although it still left it discolored.

Every student completed a project, creating a hypothesis, designing, conducting, and analyzing the experiment, and summarizing their findings in a tri-fold board and written report.

Each student was judged three times by volunteers, teachers, high school science students, and/or Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the scores tallied to determine who would compete in the state competition.