2012 Middle School Science Fair

The Christ School’s 7^th and 8^th Grade students came together in Yowell Hall for the annual Science Fair.  Students in 7^th grade were tasked with choosing topics related to life science and 8^th grade students chose physical science topics.  Middle school science teacher Mrs. Kuplen said, “The students do everything on their own, from deciding their experiment to writing the hypothesis, procedure and research paper. This type of project involves so much more than just science. The science fair is a five month long adventure that involves math, language arts, research and art.”

There were many different topics chosen by our middle school scientists and Mrs. Kuplen was very impressed by their creativity and hard work.  “Each year the students surprise me with their projects. There are the practical experiments including; which toothpaste whitens your teeth the best, or which cookie sheet makes the best cookies. Then, there are the creative experiments including; which animal has a stronger sense of smell, or testing if a magnet can increase the growth of a plant due to the minimal amount of iron found in plants. Then, there are the unusual ones, including, which item, a lit match or magnet creates plasma better when microwaved, or which area on a roller coaster causes you to feel the g-forces the best. Over the many years I have been teaching the science fair I have seen several experiments, but each year the kids keep getting better and better.”

A BIG congratulations to the overall winner, Becca Pulsifer (8^th Grade), for her project “Feel the G-Force.”  Mrs. Kuplen said Becca “not only tested two roller coasters for their g-forces, but then she constructed a model roller coaster to test the g-forces on that and compared the two. She had to transfer data from her accelerometer to a graph and use an old boy scout method of measuring to get the angle at which the roller coaster dropped to recreate her model. It was a very intricate and interesting project.”  Way to go, Becca!

Kudos to our 7^th Grade winners:

1^st place – Connor Eakins for “Rot or Not”

2^nd place – Hallie Millard for “Hand Eye Hoops”

3^rd place – Chloe Kranston for “Does Color Affect Eyesight?”

4^th place – Sarah Berger for “Survival of the Senses”

Congrats to our 8^th Grade winners:

1^st place – Matthew Casler for “123 Levitate”

2nd place – Carly Dorr for “Stop, Drop and Roll”

3rd place – Danielle Towle for “Bouncing Balls from Big to Small”

4th place – Avery Reddeck for “Which Toothpaste Whitens the Most?”