Elementary schools experiment with little scientists
The male rabbit looks around carefully in his maze as he tries to find his way out in a better time than his female counterpart.
Cody Priest explains his experiment to judges at the Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow Science Expo.
On Wednesday at 9 a.m. there was a Hanna Elementary School Science Expo where the 4th-6th graders were broken into teams of three and presented different experiments to the entire school body.
The "A-mazing Rabbits" were a definite hit far as students wanting to watch the bunnies do their thing. The experiment was to see which gender completed a maze faster. In the trials, the female had gotten her time down to 30 seconds while the male took a bit longer. Unfortunately, in front of the students, the rabbits never left the maze.
Other experiments presented were the rates of oranges decomposing, egg dyeing, flowers absorbing dye, farm eggs versus store eggs balancing and which detergents worked better on stains. The "trick your mind" experiment that used a computer presenting optical illusions, pitted boys against girls to see who could see the correct illusion. The girls did a little better. The outdoor experiment that utilized skateboards, mentos and diet coke looked to be the crowd pleaser-although not because the experiment worked out as planned. The caps on the bottles resisted the hammer being used to get the tops off and when the student experimenters tried to take the caps off by hand, the soda drenched the future scientists.
Thursday at 10 a.m., Elk Mountain Elementary hosted a Science Expo. Joyce Menke and Lynn Grant listened and judged each presentation by individual students. Some titles were self explanatory such as "Battery Power," "Grow Plants," "Soil Competition," "Weighty Air," "Bubble Ology" and "Super Eggs."
Other titles were not so easy. "Broadhead Bash" dealt with arrows and distance; "Volcano of Doom" mixed vinegar and baking soda; "Flower Power" was the rate of dye being absorbed by cut flowers; "Bright Lava" showed how to make a lava lamp and "Mummy Dogs" involved an experiment of drying out hot dogs (not a real pooch).
The winner for 6th grade was Alayna Blakeman; the fifth grade winner was Hyrum Heward; the fourth grade winner was Corbin Williams and the third grade winner was Kenna Durfey.
Reader Comments(0)