The Science Fair at the Junior High School this week was a HUGE success of scientific investigation and presentation. Setting a new school Science Fair record, nearly 450 student-created projects were presented to parents, teachers, administrators, community visitors, and other students. The projects included a wide range of subjects; among the many real-world applications, visitors learned which toothpastes whitened better, which brands of batteries lasted the longest, which genres of music helped learning and memory, what style of parachutes performed more efficiently, which paper towels were more effective, how baking soda affects muffins, what materials and distance block WIFI signals, and much more. Two science teachers even compared themselves with data presented in the experiment “Does the Golden Ratio Define Beauty Today?”
The event was the Junior High School’s 23rd annual science fair and set new participation records with about 100 more projects than last year’s Science Fair. This year there were nearly 450 well-researched and presented projects created by seventh and eighth grade junior high school students. Science Department Chair Mr. Timothy Keller characterized the projects as extremely interesting, highly creative in their approach, and implemented and presented extremely well. He said that over recent years projects have become much better — more sophisticated and more closely aligned with current scientific methods.
The projects included many real world applications and consumer science results. The use of technology in presenting data, including extremely effective computer-generated charts and graphs, has grown in recent years. Collaboration, a characteristic sought after by industry and science, was extremely evident as students conferred and worked with each other, worked with faculty, and worked with parents. There were many parents, teachers, and staff present and more students stayed after school to tour the fair, judge the projects, and confer with each other. Visitors commented that they learned a great deal from the presentations.
Selected projects will be presented at the Montgomery County Research Competition where the junior high school students typically do very well.
