Mountain Lake Public Elementary School holds annual Science Fair
Mountain Lake Public Elementary School held it 2014 Science Fair this past Friday, March 7, in the elementary library. Fourteen science project entries – involving 16 students from grades 3-6 – were entered in the fair.
Of those participating, 10 entries, given by that same number of individual students, were recognized with blue ribbons. Those entries have the opportunity to advance to the 2014 South Central/Southwest Minnesota Regional Science and Engineering Fair – Elementary Division (Grades 3-6) – on Saturday, April 26, at Myers Field House and Taylor Center on the campus of Minnesota State University-Mankato.
This annual regional fair attracts more than 1,200 projects from southern Minnesota. Nearly 600 volunteer judges and staff personnel take part in the fair.
The science fair project is the culmination of hard work, persistent investigation and in-depth experimentation by the participating student scientists. Taking part in a science fair project gives the student the opportunity to share his or her interests with parents, guardians, relatives, neighbors, teachers and fellow students – as well as the chance to be interviewed by judges.
Participation contributes to the education of students in the thinking process – from formulating the projects to actually doing the experiments and reporting the data. Being a part of this process may mean the beginning of a life-long fascination with science for the student.
To present a science fair project, the student scientists develop a hypothesis, plan a process to test that hypothesis, put that process into motion using various hands-on materials, see the process to it completion and then explain the results.
Participating Mountain Lake students, their project titles and ribbon award were as follows:
Third Grade –
* Shyan Ober, “Why Does Honey Crystallize?,” Red Ribbon.
* Abi Renteria and Brody Kleven, “What Kind of Water Makes Better Crystals?,” Red Ribbon.
* Brice Anacker, “Electrolysis of Water,” Blue Ribbon.
* Brooke Naas, “Blow It Up,” Blue Ribbon.
* Alana Morey, “Cricket Behavior,” Blue Ribbon.
* Hailey Marx, “How Does Frost Form?,” Red Ribbon.
Fourth Grade –
* Caden Swoboda, “Ramp of Friction,” Blue Ribbon.
* Olivia Christians, “‘Don’t Smash Me,’ Says Soil,” Blue Ribbon.
* Jasmine Davison and Sierra Perkins, “Mystery Molecules,” Red Ribbon.
* Harlan Munning, “The Absorbent Wars,” Blue Ribbon.
Fifth Grade –
* Eryn Friesen, “Shiny Teeth,” Blue Ribbon.
* Carly Osland, “Is it Safe to Eat? (The 5-Second Rule),” Blue Ribbon.
* Hana Bergling, “Water on Water,” Blue Ribbon.
Sixth Grade –
* Brett Willaby, “Does Direction Matter?,” Blue Ribbon.
Local Science Fair coordinators are Jean Haberman, library media center advisor; Pam Osland, library media center parapraofessional and fourth-grade teacher Matt Anderson.
PARTICIPANTS IN THIS year’s Mountain Lake Public Elementary Science Fair included, front, from left, Shyan Ober, Abi Renteria, Brody Kleven, Hailey Marx, Brooke Naas and Alana Morey. Back, from left, Brice Anacker, Sierra Perkins, Olivia Christians, Harlan Munning, Hana Bergling, Eryn Friesen and Carly Osland. Not pictured are Jasmine Davison, Caden Swoboda and Brett Willaby.BLUE RIBBON WINNERS, who have the opportunity to advance to the Southwest/South Central Minnesota Regional Science and Engineering Fair – Elementary Division (Grades 3-6) – to be held in April at Minnesota State University-Mankato, include, seated front, from left, Olivia Christians, Brice Anacker and Alana Morey. Back, from left, Harlan Munning, Eryn Friesen, Brooke Naas, Carly Osland and Hana Bergling.SIXTH-GRADER BRETT Willaby’s blue ribbon science fair project, “Does Direction Matter” dealt with how well a corn plant grows correlates to how the seed is planted – pointing down, pointing up, pointing sidewise left. (Hint: Don’t plant the seed pointing up!)CARLY OSLAND, A fifth-grader, tested how safe it was to eat food items dropped on a variety of floors – “Is it Safe to Eat? (The 5-Second Rule).” If you don’t want to know the results on eating an unwrapped candy bar or peeled banana dropped on a public floor – don’t look at the photograph below!THESE ARE THOSE results – the bacteria that grew on an unwrapped candy bar dropped for five seconds on a public floor, at the left, and a peeled banana plopped on a public floor for five seconds, at the right. Deeelicious!WITH FIFTH-GRADER Eryn Friesen’s science fair project, “Shiny Teeth,” the whitest teeth was desired end game – and – which toothpaste provided the best results. Toothpaste manufacturers should contact the student scientist for the data for use in their advertising.WILL ADD was the hypothesis proposed by fifth-grader Hana Bergling with her science fair project, “Water on Water.” In the end, it was a half-and-half result on whether water will float on water – depending on whether it was hot water on top of cold water, cold water on top of hot water or salt water on top of fresh water. (Hint: Cold water is more dense – and, of course, the Great Salt Lake in Utah explains all about salt water.)WHICH PAPER TOWEL was the best in the absorption test? Fourth-grader Harlan Munning experimented and determined the answer with his science fair project, “The Absorbent Wars.”HARLAN MUNNING, SEATED, shares information on his science fair project with fellow fourth-grader, Kolby Kremmin, left.WILL PLANTED SEEDS grow well in hard-packed soil? What about over-tilled soil? Cultivated” Biomass? Compost? Fourth-grader Olivia Christians knows the answer because of her science fair project, “‘Don’t Smash Me,’ Says Soil.'”OLIVIA CHRISTIANS, right, explains the “Whys” and “Wherefores” of her science fair project.BROOKE NAAS, A third-grader at Mountain Lake Public Elementary, used her science fair project, “Blow It Up” to determine whether the size of the bottle used, the amount of baking soda used or the amount of vinegar used makes a difference in the amount of gas produced and how much that will blow up the balloon covering the top of the bottle.
