Having fun with science

Students learn to connect hypothesis to conclusions as they try to solve everyday problems.

By Anthony Kim

Students at Incarnation Elementary School showed their curiosities about the world around them Monday in a science fair that many used to tackle everyday problems.

George Zelaya, 10, tried to determine whether massaging pressure points soothes headaches. His mother, grandmother and aunt were his test subjects because they all had very stressful jobs, he said.

"My aunt is an ER nurse," he said. "My mom - I don't know what she does, really, but it's something in the law business. My grandma is a barber, but she takes her job really seriously and tries to do it to the best of her abilities."

For two months, he waited for his test subjects to get headaches then massaged their temples for two-, four- and eight-minute intervals. Rubbing the temples longer provides greater relief he said, but he recommended aspirin for headaches.

"Probably medicine because [rubbing the temples] takes longer," George said.

While George's project soothed his test subjects, the experiment that 12-year-olds Nicholas Gonzales and Andrew Friedman created put their test subjects on edge.

"We gave people various energy drinks and then tested their blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate," Andrew said.

Every drink they used - Mountain Dew AMP, Full Throttle, ROCKSTAR and Monster - pumped up their participants, they said. But AMP gave the biggest rush.

"We think it was because it had the most sugar and caffeine," Nicholas said. "The two teens we tested said they stayed up really late that night."

The presentation of the energy drink project demonstrated that the students really enjoyed doing it, said David Henry, one of several parent judges who evaluated the projects. Henry, a Glendale attorney, has judged the science fair over the past few years and said each year students get a stronger grasp of science.

Projects get a letter grade, with input from judges and teachers.

"The kids are getting the idea of the scientific method over the years," he said. "They're doing science experiments that are real science experiments."

Besides learning to connect hypotheses to conclusions through experimentation, the students also build public speaking skills, Principal Anne Regan-Smith said.

"To see them gain confidence in presenting is real exciting for me," she said.

Erik Hovland, science project judge and JPL computer engineer, said one of his favorite projects showed how a student created a way to move three trash cans at once on trash pick-up day.

"What's good about it is that it's definitely solving a need for the child," he said.

There was not a lot of experimentation in the project, but it solved a problem that the student faced every week on trash day, Hovland said.

But not every project addressed responses to everyday problems.

Jasmine Romero, 11, tried to determine if one could identify a child's gender just by looking at the child's hand. She showed pictures of her friends' hands to 100 people to see if they can tell the friends' genders.

Jasmine found that most people could determine older children's hands more accurately than the younger ones. There was also one 8-year-old test subject who stood out from Jasmine's hypothesis.

Many people guessed right because her hands looked more feminine than the others, Jasmine said.