Glad Scientists: Middle School Students Share Their Experiments
Cowles 6th grader Chloe O’Connor explains her science fair entry, which won first prize in the physical science division.
Everyone knows the image of a mad scientist. Some brilliant but misguided old guy in a castle laboratory plotting world domination, laughing diabolically all the way.
And then there are glad scientists. Tuesday night there were lots of them, in fact, at the 5th annual DMPS Middle School Science Fair, held at the Science Center of Iowa.
The event continues to grow along with the increasing emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. Year one drew about fifty entrants. This year there were 134, up ten from a year ago.
Patrolling the exhibit hall was like walking up and down the aisles at the smarts store, trying to decide what you most need and want to know amidst the maze of hypotheses and conclusions and dependent, independent, and controlled variables. Does music really soothe the savage beast (okay, make that a family pet)? Can we see the effects of pollution on flowers? Can drinking Coke make your body fall apart? If so, maybe swing by the booth about how to make your own root beer. Do we really get what we pay for (as measured in the durability of drumsticks)? Is there such a thing as the perfect cookie? Can rolling style affect the probability of a high number with a pair of dice (good to know if you wanna clean up at the family Monopoly table)? And the pesky conundrum: how does the dextrose concentration affect the osmosis rate in peritoneal dialysis? So many questions (and answers); so little time.
Every entrant was judged against the same rubric of five criteria, according to DMPS Science Curriculum Coordinator, Kim O’donnell. Fortunately for them, none of the 38 judges (community representatives from relevant fields and educators from other districts) was charged with assessing all 134 projects. A system was devised that assigned three judges to each exhibit. All place-winners are eligible to advance to the State of Iowa Science Fair on April 4 & 5 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.
Lucy Karlin, for instance. The Merrill 7th grader wondered if old dogs might not learn as well or better than young ones. Her hunch was they can. She has two pooches herself; Doc, a 13 year-old lab, and Bijou, a five year-old mutt. She turned both of them and several of their canine pals from around the neighborhood into guinea pigs to conduct some experiments using food as a motivator. Besides the assigned judges, her display caught the eyes of at least one older passerby who was relieved to see the data she’d gathered to support the conclusion that old dogs can learn a lot as long as there’s something in it for them, in this case, a “beggin’ strip.” Eating’s not a new trick exactly, but still, Lucy’s research flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
Cowles 7th grader Treyton Jenkins’ display was labeled “The Death of an Orange.” That sounded juicy, even more so when you pulled over and listened to him wax forensic about the effects of size on rates of decomposition with all the earnestness of a car salesman a bit shy of his quota on the last day of the sales month. If only he’d been juggling some of his props. There’s no substitute for genuine enthusiasm! Treyton was one of the gladdest scientists at the fair.
Before we get to the list of winners, one more finding. The savage beast thing? If the music is heavy metal the answer is no. But classical? Yes, according to the latest research.
DMPS Science Fair Award Winners 2013
6th Grade Earth Science
- 1st Place: Jackson Riley Niccum
- 2nd Place: Nyah Noyes & Helena Anderson
- 3rd Place: Adrianna Campos
6th Grade Life Science
- 1st Place: Louise Bequeaith
- 2nd Place: Faiza Naseer
- 3rd Place: Ingrid Collett
6th Grade Physical Science
- 1st Place: Chloe O’Connor
- 2nd Place: Dale Neal
- 3rd Place: Forrest LaPrade
7th Grade Earth Science
- 1st Place: Maya Miller
- 2nd Place: Xavier Robles
- 3rd Place: Abi Tinlin
7th Grade Life Science
- 1st Place: Rabsa Naseer
- 2nd Place: Lucy Karlin
- 3rd Place: Ellie Konfrst
7th Grade Physical Science
- 1st Place: Intisar Becic
- 2nd Place: Dezell Turner
- 3rd Place (tie): McKenna Horstmann and Ben Stone
8th Grade Earth Science
- 1st Place: Shawn Christensen
- 2nd Place: Andy Skow & Blake Springer
8th Grade Life Science
- 1st Place: Nosa Ali
- 2nd Place: Christian Anderson
- 3rd Place: Satchel Perlowski
8th Grade Physical Science
- 1st Place: Ross Thompson
- 2nd Place (tie): Aiden Stover-Wright and Abbie Danielle Espinoza Gonzales
- 3rd Place: Hanna Walker
