Feature article

Budding scientists press for answers

Article and pictures by Tammy Lane
February 5, 2008

  Melinda Kinsel, who teaches at Athens-Chilesburg Elementary School, believes that “most scientists take the work of previous scientists and build on prior learning.”
  And that’s exactly the path two young students have chosen in preparing projects for Saturday’s Kentucky American Water / FCPS District Science Fair.
  Urvi Patwardhan, a sixth-grader at Winburn Middle School, followed her older brother’s lead as she studied how metals in water affect plants. Alexander Walker, in fifth grade at Athens-Chilesburg, continued the work he started last year in studying how to remove cave graffiti.
  “You’re never done investigating,” Kinsel said. “There are always new questions evolving.”
  That’s what 10-year-old Alex realized. He found last year that carbonic acids, like Coke, work well in removing scratches and smoke stains from cave walls. This year, he concluded that acetones, like nail polish remover, work best on spray paint.
  “It ruins the natural look of the cave,” Alex said of graffiti, which he notices while caving with his Boy Scout troop.
  For his project, he picked up limestone rocks at a neighborhood construction site and spray-painted them. He then immersed the rocks in several solvents, including ammonia, lemon juice, paint remover and acetone. Distilled water was his control liquid.
  “I’d gotten a chemistry set for Christmas that came in more handy than I thought it would,” said Alex, who used it to test the solvents’ pH levels.
  After soaking the rocks for several hours, he rated the solvents according to their effectiveness. “The spray paint remover worked the best,” he determined.
  One question that emerged is whether people should simply leave graffiti alone rather than risk further damage to the environment. Alex, whose project references prehistoric cave art and historical graffiti such as that of Mammoth Cave explorer Stephen Bishop, stressed that any solvent used on caves needs to be nonflammable and biodegradable.
  “Even if you lose (the science fair competition), your project might make a difference,” Alex said.
  Urvi, 11, also sees a utility value in her water project about metals leaching. If farmers irrigated their plants with iron-rich water, she said, maybe people wouldn’t have to take iron supplements.
  “It can even help you in your backyard,” Urvi said of her research.
  For instance, homeowners could use any old plants to soak up all the metals in their soil through the roots, then plant an apple tree in the “cleaner” soil. “No one wants aluminum in their diet,” she noted.
  Urvi’s interest in metals’ leaching was piqued two years ago after her brother did a similar experiment. When their father discarded his water samples in the family garden, the plants died.
  “That’s kind of weird,” Urvi remembers thinking, “I want to figure out more about that.”
  In her research, she investigated which metals leach into water and how much plants take up or absorb different metals, including copper, aluminum, brass, stainless steel and cast iron. After monitoring her metal-tainted jugs and watering her mustard plants, she extracted metal from the leaves in a laboratory process and ultimately found that copper leached the most, then iron.
  Urvi, who won second place overall in regional competition as a fourth-grader, is not anxious about Saturday’s district science fair.
  “You basically explain your project (to the judges) and answer their questions,” she said, adding “The competition is tough.”
  Like Alex, Urvi enjoys working on a project of her own choosing.
  “It’s like a discovery you make yourself,” she said. “In the science fair, it’s completely solo, (and you can say) ‘I figured this out.’ I think it’s cool.”
  At least 600 students from across the district are expected to compete in the science fair, which will run 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9 at Bryan Station High School, located at 201 Eastin Road. Projects will be set up in the gym, cafeteria and theater for judging, and the winners will be announced at 3 p.m. in the gym.
  “It’s such a great event because it brings together our students, our schools and the community,” said Lori Bowen, the district’s elementary science coordinator.
  All winners will advance to the regional science fair March 1 at the University of Kentucky, followed by state competition. Students can win college scholarships at those levels.
  Fayette County public schools are sending 10 to 20 students apiece to this Saturday’s competition, which is open to grades 4-12. Projects will range from product testing (elementary level) to cancer research grants (high school level) in such categories as the environment, water and behavioral science.
  “The science fair is kind of hard, but it’s satisfying to know you got to … become the expert on something you never knew about,” Alex said.
  Category winners and grade-level winners (best overall) will get trophies, along with a Lexmark printer and tickets to a Legends baseball game. All the participants will take home a T-shirt, ribbon and certificate.
  The event, with the theme “Chillin’ Out at the Science Fair,” also will feature mini-presentations from statewide experts and hands-on activities. In one, students can make scarves and learn about how they insulate the body from the cold.
  “Families can come and have a really great experience,” Bowen said.
  This is the school district’s 24th year of partnering with Kentucky American Water, chief sponsor of the science fair.

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