The Science Fair

The girls picked some really interesting science projects this year. I really want them to find actual questions they have to direct their research and they did it pretty well!

Gwyn's question was:  Is color just perception or is it based on physical properties of an object?

She studied light and color, how the eye works, and color blindness to answer her question.  She even had a demonstration of colors refracted from a light source at her display.

Celee's question was:  Why does the element samarium repell sharks?  

Celee found out that sharks have extra-sensory pores on their head that are sensitive to magnetic fields, which samarium produces.  She found out all about the earth's magnetic field and how sharks use it to navigate.  She discovered that animals create magnetic waves when they move that sharks can sense.  And she found out about scientists experimenting with samarium coveted fish-hooks to repell sharks.  We even made a little shark model that's eyes lit up when it "looked" at the samarium.

Lyla's question was:  Why don't birds and squirrels get electrocuted when they are on power lines?

Lyla already understood how a circuit works, so she learned about how the flow of electricity takes the easiest path and will run from high to low wattage.  If the bird or squirrel only touches one wire, the electricity has no reason to flow into it. But if it touches two wires, or one wire and anything else, the electricity will go through it to run into the lower wattage thing.  She learned that. People are touching the low-wattage ground or tree, or pole usually when they touch electrical wires, so the electricity goes trough the person to flow into the other thing.  She had a model of a squirrel on a wire whose eyes lit up when you made him touch both wires on her "telephone poles."

We had three people from the community with science related careers come and be the evaluators.  Each student got to explain their project to the three evaluators and answer questions.  I find this very rewarding.  Even with the girls picking their own projects, there is still some cajoling that occurs to actually get the project completed.  So I love to see how proud of heir work they at e when they get to present it to others.