Junior scientists
Kids put scientific knowledge on display

Luckily, there were no mad scientists at the George Nettels Elementary School Science Fair Monday evening.

Students and parents alike turned out in droves for the event, which was open to third, fourth and fifth graders, and had over 30 participants.

Projects ranged from research projects on tornadoes, bats and penguins, to more sophisticated projects like how rockets work, how chemical reactions provide kinetic energy, and how to polish silverware.

The event, which is now in its third year at Nettels, has already become an eagerly anticipated event for students, according to Carol Rink, gifted education coordinator for USD 250 elementary schools.

"The fact that it's been going on every year, they know all year really," Rink said. "We send home notices and remind them in December and they have a month or so to get it ready. Parents know it's coming up. The kids especially get enthusiastic and they start planning - probably the whole year, they're thinking about it."

According to Rink, most of the projects are done by the students at home, which is where many of their ideas come from.

"We encourage parents to help, use their expertise in science to help the kids," Rink said. "If it is somewhat more sophisticated, that's fine. We like the kids to do as much of it as they can, but obviously some of the concepts come from adult thinking, which we figure the more that they use their expertise, the more we learn. We have a lot of parents with a lot of science background."

And home was definitely part of the inspiration for some of the students.

"My mom gave me the idea," fourth-grader Zoe Lemon said, whose project was on the development of babies from the womb to birth.

In fact, for Emily Hicks, whose project was "How to Make Silver Shine," the idea came from a much-needed task that needed to be completed.

"We had a lot of silverware that we needed to clean," she said. "So we experimented, adding different things to water, and this worked."

Hicks used a combination of water, aluminum foil, baking soda and salt to clean the tarnish off their silverware.

Third-grader Nick Powers, got the idea for his project from his former home state, Texas.

"I used to live in Texas and they have a lot of tornadoes," he said.

And Powers learned quite a bit from his experiment.

"I did not know that Kansas has had more F5 tornadoes that any state since 1880," he said, "and how much damage they cause."

Kelsey Thomas, third grader, said the idea for her project, "Water Clock," came from a different source.

"A science fair book," she said.

And now that this year's science fair is over with, these young scientists must turn their minds, or their entire nervous system, in the case of one student's project, to creating ideas for next year's science fair.

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) January 31, 2006