In the name of science
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on March 2, 2017 10:25 AM
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Ten-year-old Elias Schuler, right, a fifth-grader from Tommy's Road Elementary, explains how his programmable Lego bots run and interact during the STEM Fair at the YMCA Wednesday.
Caleb Strahan was all poised to demonstrate his group's science project Wednesday morning in the YMCA gymnasium -- how the moon's surface is affected when hit by meteorites and space debris.
The fourth-grader at Rosewood Elementary School pointed to an aluminum container with a spongy material, representing the moon, and reached into a bag of various sized marbles to make his point.
"We drop a marble from an angle, different angles," he said.
Classmate Anna Parker Heath took it from there.
"Line the ruler up an angle. Let the marble go (down a ramp), and it'll make a crater," she explained. "And after you take the marble out, you could observe it changes the surface."
Depending on the size of the marble, a smaller or larger "crater" would be formed.
Peyton Lowery, who rounded out their team, said she liked the way the experiment taught her more about the Earth and its atmosphere.
The students were part of the STEM Fair, which focuses on science, technology, engineering and math. This marks the third year for the event, designed to foster a spirit of scientific inquiry and challenging students to participate in STEM-related competitions.
Sponsored by the Wayne Education Network of the Chamber of Commerce and Wayne County Public Schools, it drew an estimated 1,500 seventh-graders from public, private and home schools around the county.
In addition to students in grades four through 12 participating as exhibitors and showing their own STEM projects, business and college representatives were on hand talking with students about potential careers in the STEM field.
Bailee Daniels, computer-integrated machining instructor at Wayne Community College, had a penny press at her booth.
"(That's) to bring all the students in," she said of the souvenir she handed out pennies that bore the machining imprint. "While they're doing that, I'm trying to discuss the program.
"Hopefully having that penny will go with them throughout the years."
The younger students putting on demonstrations and fielding questions from the bigger kids might have been a bit daunting, but most managed to push past that.
"It's kind of scary, but it's fun," said Makayla Smith, a fourth-grader at Carver Elementary School.
"It's cool that the younger ones can help teach the older ones about things in STEM," said Ken Derksen, director of communication services for WCPS.
Robin Casey, a teacher at Carver Elementary, was confident in her third- and fourth-grade students, encouraging them to showcase their handiwork created for the district's recent science fair.
For her project, Makayla tested out theories on effective handwashing -- entitled, "Is Your Soap a Joke?"
"I used glow gel to represent the germ, and I put it on my hands and took a picture of what it looked like before I washed it off," she explained. "I used bar soap, liquid soap, hand sanitizer and foam soap, and then I did it with just water.
"It actually turns out that bar soap got rid of the most germs."
Aiden Clawson and Hailey Pancia, third-grade classmates at Meadow Lane Elementary, were paired up for "All Cracked Up."
"We had to do research, make a hypothesis, we had to make a materials list, do our step-by-step directions, take pictures, record data, make a scale for the graph and print the pictures," Aiden explained.
The "egg drop" featured bowls lined with different substances -- boiled noodles, marshmallows and cheeseballs -- to cushion the fall of the egg.
"It was to see which one would protect the egg better," Hailey said. "We found out the cheeseballs and marshmallows protected the eggs best."
"And that working together is awesome," Aiden chimed in.
The teammates had already proven themselves worthy to be there, having won the science fair at their school and at the county level and gone on to the regional event.
"We didn't win," Aiden said. "But we got first place up until the regionals."
Another Meadow Lane student, third-grader Madison Gurley, created a unique substance at her station, "Ooey Gluey Slime."
"I took slime and had a process where I mixed Clorox and glue, and I stirred it up and put them together," she said. "And then I took it out, and I kneaded it with my hands."
She held up a plastic bowl containing a sticky white paste, which felt similar to the popular child's toy Silly Putty.
Then she did the same thing with a blue glue gel, resulting in a different consistency.
"It feels like a dolphin when it's not wet," she said.
How does she know that?
"Because I felt a dolphin before," she said. "I felt it when it was dry."
There was another takeaway from the experiment, she said.
"I learned that the glues that you use with slime are very different and that some glues have lots of viscosity and some don't," she said.
There was much to take in at the STEM Fair.
Christina Gordon, a seventh-grader from Eastern Wayne Middle School, had no problem rattling off a list of things she observed. As well as the satisfaction she felt as her group prepared to leave.
"I wanted to come because I wanted to learn something new and exciting," she said. "And I did."≈