Do fruits float or sink? How does light make colors? Why doesn’t the ocean freeze?
The answers to those questions and more were on display for more than 150 Evans Elementary School students and their families who packed the halls of the school on the night of April 9 for the second annual Evans Science Fair.
Students in kindergarten through third grade received positive comments on their work from teachers and faculty judges, and Cherokee High School AP science class students judged the fourth- and fifth-grade classes’ projects competitively the previous night.
Principal Nick DiBlasi said the idea to hold a fair originated from wanting to give students hands-on science experience before the school’s annual science expo.
“We do a science expo every year, so we thought it would be great to have the kids participate in a science fair that week before they got the chance to see adults who work in science,” DiBlasi said. “It’s just to stimulate kids to see science as another avenue of education and really to work even as a living, to be involved in the sciences and technology and engineering.”
DiBlasi also praised the idea of having Cherokee High School students judge the fourth- and fifth- grade projects as a way to keep the schools and students interconnected.
“What a better way to continue the connections that we have with Cherokee High School, since they were former Evans students, Marlton Middle and DeMasi students,” DiBlasi said. “They’re our kids. We taught them. Now they’re coming back and judging. It’s great.”
One fifth-grade student competing was Natalie Roesch with her experiment “Is it really the cookie or the cookie sheet that makes the perfect cookie?”
Roesch took three different types of baking trays and observed the effects each tray had on the outcome of cookies.
“I made a chart,” Roesch said. “I tested which has the best bottom, which has the best top, which one is the most soft and chewy, and then the best one wins.”
The winning tray was made of heavy-duty carbon steel, which surprised her father Andy who said he had never put much thought into how big an effect it could have on baking. He was impressed with the practical application of the project.
“To me, I actually liked the idea more than anything else because it actually took science in a practical application,” Andy said. “A lot of people bake every day and this actually has a daily, useful result.”
Another student with a project at the fair was second-grader Lily Barber. Her experiment “How Does Light Make Colors?” used different colored pieces of cellophane and flashlights to see what different colors were formed by mixing different colored lights.
Barber said the colored lights reacted differently than colored paint, with the lights making white when all shined together, instead of the black the paints would make. She said she liked science because of things like that.
“It’s fun because it’s exciting, and I really want to know the answers to a lot of questions,” Barber said.
Her mother Patti said her daughter is always asking her questions, so it was fun to help her use science to answer some of them.
“It’s so important to make learning, not be just in the school, but in everyday life because you never stop learning,” Patti said. “As adults, we’re always going to training, and we need to expand our knowledge in our profession. We need to teach the kids that it isn’t just happening at the school, but it happens all the time.”
Although younger students such as Barber weren’t judged competitively, second- and third- grade teacher Corinne Blake was one of the judges writing positive comments to students in that age range.
She said she was commenting on how closely the students followed the scientific method or how clear they were in their visuals.
“This is a great activity to give them an opportunity to try more experiments on their own and their own interests,” Blake said. “I hope they get other ideas from their classmates and other kids here at school and maybe try more experiments at home — becoming some self-motivated learners.”
Ultimately, DiBlasi echoed Blake’s sentiments, hoping the fair would leave students with an interest to continue their scientific work at home with their parents.
“You can look around and
see it,” DiBlasi said. “They love working on it. They get a chance to guide their children and
work with them on problem solving. As you can tell when looking at all the projects, they’re really kid centered, kid focused, kid created, which is what we’re looking for.”
