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Exploring science through projects |
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Thursday, 21 May 2009 |
 Northridge Elementary School fourth-grade student Jacob Metzger explains the difference in how tomato and watermelon plants grew when they were “watered” with Mountain Dew and milk. By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
From what causes pruning fingers and building bridges of spaghetti to what cleaner does a better job and what happens when a plant is watered with orange juice, fourth-graders at Northridge Elementary School presented their science discoveries this week.
The students, who gave presentations to classmates throughout the week and held a formal science fair for parents Tuesday and are planning another one from 6 to 7:30 p.m. today, practiced the scientific process they have studied this year as they developed their own projects, made hypotheses and did an experiment to see if they were right and determine why or why not in their conclusions.
“It was amazing,” Jacob Metzger said of seeing other students’ projects, in particular one where food dye in water turned white carnations different colors. “I didn’t know it would do that.”
His own project, determined the different effects milk and Mountain Dew had on plants when it was used instead of water.
Jacob said he thought the plant he used water on would grow the best, but he thought the Mountain Dew one would grow, too, and he predicted the one milk was put on would die.
He was partially right, the one in the water did grow the best, and the one with milk on it was covered in mold, but the one “watered” with Mountain Dew did not grow either.
He tried his experiment on tomato and watermelon plants to see if there was a difference.
Joanna Schultz decided to see if there truly was a difference in brands of cheesy popcorn, specifically if there is a difference between generic store brands and name brands.
She thought there would be and predicted the better known Mikesell’s brand would eclipse the flavor and taste of both Meijer’s store brand and that of Seyfert, a brand common in the area.
After testing seven subjects, she found the opposite to be true, that six of the seven preferred the Meijer brand because it tasted “fresher and cheesier.”
“I thought the name brand would be better,” Joanna said, “but even though it’s cheaper, everyone liked the Meijer brand better. It proved that just because something is cheaper doesn’t mean it’s made with lower quality ingredients.”
Sam Fuerst tried her hand at flying a variety of paper airplanes, all constructed differently for her project.
She said she thought they would all work differently based on how they were designed, and after several tries each, they did.
Students choose a wide variety of topics either from a list of ideas provided by their teacher or based on their interests or through brainstorming.
Most worked on their projects — conducting surveys or physical experiments, researching and developing a board and presentation — for at least two weeks.
“We had to know what we did and how we did it,” Jacob said.
Students plan to use the experience to prepare for a science fair when they are students at Wapakoneta Middle School. Some may expand on projects they started, but many came up with new topics to explore after hearing classmates give presentations.
“There’s so many different things we can do to bring science to real life,” Jacob said.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 22 May 2009 )
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