Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Thursday, January 12, 2012

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SCAPA students and families browsed among the fourth- and seventh-grade projects at the annual science fair open house.

Science fairs typically are about research, experiments and conclusions. Sometimes they’re also all about presentation.

For SCAPA at Bluegrass, students’ projects are unveiled first for school-level judges and then for their families at the annual science fair open house. The drop-in is an opportunity for the fourth- and seventh-graders to share their individual work with each other and for parents to marvel at their children’s efforts.

“One of the hardest things is coming up with an idea for a project. (The open house) confirms to me that what they did was on target,” said Pam Cunningham, who has two youngsters at SCAPA. “I’m amazed at the variety of projects represented,” she added. “You can always find something you maybe wondered about.”

Twelve-year-old Ella and Josh, 10, escorted their mom Wednesday evening as dozens browsed through the projects set up in the school library.

Josh’s board was titled “Hey Fellow, It’s Yellow.” “We tested it at two intersections and counted the cars that ran yellow lights and the ones that stopped,” he said, noting that he enjoyed the legwork more than making the poster display.

For her part, Ella examined how an activity affects memory and recall, with her test subjects either solving multiplication problems or playing video games.

Three years ago, her fourth-grade project advanced to the district science fair, so she’s an experienced entrant. “My major is violin so I perform a lot in front of people. Explaining a science fair project is kind of like performing,” she said.

In that sense, students at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts might have an edge with the judges, as Cunningham said, “Any children involved in music or dance or drama develop a self-confidence that spills over to all areas.”

Nine-year-old Taylor Moorehead, for example, happily dispatched her family across the room as she talked candidly about her project, “Don’t cry over spilled oil.”

“When I heard about the BP oil spill, I was really concerned about it and I wanted to help in a way,” she said in noting why she chose this topic. “I wanted to know which materials absorb the most oil so when there’s a spill, you can clean it up quickly. Scientists can provide advice.”

The SCAPA students covered an array of subjects, including:

• How the shape of windmill blades affects the amount of electricity generated;
• How kicking a soccer ball with spin affects the accuracy of the shot on goal;
• How different styles of music affect a horse’s heart rate; and
• How the type of phone, and the user’s gender, age and thumb size affect the speed of texting.

For each project, the students described the purpose, hypothesis, variables, materials and procedures. They also displayed data tables, charts and graphs, and wrote up a conclusion.

“Every part of the process is very intentional, with feedback along the way,” said seventh-grade science teacher Ashlie Beals, who noted that many of her students opted for topics in the arts field or another area of personal concern.

For instance, one girl whose grandmother has emphysema investigated the effects of age and size on lung capacity.

“I encourage them to pick something aligned with their interests and see that science is part of everyday life,” Beals said. “If they’re engaged in that topic, it’s not just a school requirement anymore.”

If you go

District science fair

Schools host their own science fairs, and a limited number of entries advance to the district-level competition. The 28^th annual district science fair will be Saturday Feb. 11 at Bryan Station High School. It is sponsored by Kentucky American Water and coordinated by Fayette County Public Schools. For more details, visit www.fcps.net/science.

Note: The district’s STEM Fair (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is the same day in the same location.

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