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PRJH students exploring new worlds in Science
Mac Olsen
for Spotlight
The Prairie River Junior High science fair had it all, from pedal power electricity to sound proofing materials.
Held at the Elks Hall in High Prairie Jan. 25, the science fair consisted of 30 Grade 8 experiments and a public viewing was held in the afternoon.
“We emphasize that they conduct an experiment … and … try to come up with something original and interesting to them,” says Cory Whalen, a Grade 8 science teacher at PRJH and one of the organizers.
The students are judged for their presentation, data, write ups, originality, displays and background knowledge, he adds.
A walk through the hall revealed two students showing off their pedal power experiment. Using a modified bike, Jacqueline Larson and Adria Cisaroski strained to generate power for a string of lights, but their faces “lit up” when their experiment worked.
While vacationing in B.C., Larson’s family came across a similar interactive device at a dam.
“It was just something that caught my eye, one of those interactive displays,” says Larson. “I thought that was really cool and I talked it over with (Cisaroski) and we agreed on it. It’s basically hooking up the positives to the positives and the negatives to the negatives and making sure we get that field coil kicked in.”
The bike powers an alternator, which can power light bulbs like the ones they used on their string. They built a stand for the bike and attached the alternator to the stand.
They definitely favour the type of power it generates.
“It really showed us that energy can be created by humans and how environmentally clean and friendly it is,” says Larson.
“We hope energy like this will be used in the future,” says Cisaroski. “It’s green and it’s clean. It keeps you fit and lowers your bills.”
Cisaroski also says they weren’t sure what would happen the first time they tested it. However, they were surprised when the field coil kicked in, which made it hard to pedal.
“You could get a good workout,” says Larson.
Science is one of their favourite subjects, although they’re not sure if they’d like to make careers of it.
With all the concerns and talk about the H1N1 virus, Sheridan Sokoloski and Ashley Rigaux wanted to determine if hand sanitizers are effective killing germs. They tested a hand sanitizer from their school, as well as vinegar, rubbing alcohol and soap and water.
“We wanted to see which ones would prevent the growth of different species of bacteria,” says Sokoloski. “Our conclusion was that vinegar worked the best.”
The rubbing alcohol was the second best, followed by soap and water, then the hand sanitizer. They thought the hand sanitizers would do the job, but they don’t by themselves, as soap and water are required as well.
“When you use (just) soap and water, you don’t kill the germs,” says Sokoloski. “After that, you use the hand sanitizer to get the germs off.”
People should allow 10-15 seconds for the hand sanitizer to dry or the germs won’t be eliminated, they add.
They spent two to three weeks doing the research, which included one week of observations and pictures, then another week compiling the information. They had to do the experiment twice, as there were errors in their testing the first time. They used a 52-step process for their second try, ensuring far more accurate results.
There were also a series of audio experiments at the fair, including Deena Lynch’s sound barriers experiment. Her dad wants to build a home theatre system, so she decided to test five materials – cement, denim, fibreglass, straw and Styrofoam – to determine which is the best for wall sound proofing.
Lynch and her mom built five wooden boxes and put one material in each box. Lynch tested each box by placing her CD player inside, put the lid on and then used a decibel meter to measure the maximum sound level.
She performed the test three times for all the boxes and the results came back the same every time. She found the cement is the best, which didn’t surprise her.
“Cement is a solid substance and it would restrict the sound waves,” says Lynch.
Other materials placing from second to fifth were denim, fibreglass, straw and Styrofoam.
Other experiments at the fair included electricity generated by fruits, horse minerals and global warming. Students started working on their experiments in the fall of 2009 and had to complete them by Christmas.
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Davis Rose decided to do a volcanic eruption experiment for his Prairie River Junior High School Science Fair project. He wanted to find out what ratio of vinegar to baking soda gives the best reaction. He discovered the more baking soda he used, the bigger the reaction. He used plaster and a graduated cylinder to build the volcano.
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Sheridan Sokoloski, left, and Ashley Rigaux wanted to determine if hand sanitizers work as well as claimed. They tested a hand sanitizer from their school, vinegar, rubbing alcohol and soap and water. They learned using soap and water, then the sanitizer, work best.
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Tanaya Rudolf, left, and Susue Ajaleh wanted to know what music gives plants the best growth rate. They played heavy metal for one set of plants, classical music for a second and no music for the third, non-stop over a month. They found classical music is best.
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Blake Williscroft has doubts about global warming. So, to determine if the bigger half or smaller half of a glacier melts faster, he put six ice cubes in water and weighed them every half hour to measure their melting rate. He concluded the smaller half melts faster.
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Justin Holmes, left, and John St. Cyr wanted to know which type of fruit – apple, Asian pear, grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange or pummelo – gives the most electricity. They used a power meter to test each and found the lemon gives the most because of its citric acid.
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Deena Lynch’s father wants to know what the best sound proofing is for a home theatre system. She tested five materials – cement, denim, fibreglass, straw and Styrofoam – in separate boxes using her CD player and a decibel meter and found cement is the best material.
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Matt Marquardt, left, and Joe Bliss wanted to know if Hoffman’s Horse Minerals improve the colour, shininess and softness of a horse. They used the product in food for two of Marquardt’s horses over 20 days and saw the progression as they expected.
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Adria Cisaroski, left, and Jacqueline Larson created a pedal power experiment using an alternator and a vehicle battery to generate electricity for a string of lights on the wall. They had to exert themselves to start pedalling, but everything went smoothly after that.
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Adria Cisaroski demonstrates how good old-fashioned pedal power can generate electricity. Cisaroski, a student at Prairie River Junior High in High Prairie, participated in the annual science fair at the Elks Hall Jan. 26, with 30 experiments displayed.
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Danny Tuthill wanted to know which type of music – high tempo, classical or no music – helps people with exercise. He used three people for his experiment and interviewed them six times each, with two interviews per music category, and found high tempo works best.
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Results
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