Budding scientists present research

Science fair participation statewide is declining, the director said.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- As Lake-to-River Science Day participants packed up their projects, Caila Jacobs bounced through Beeghly Center and squealed with delight as she greeted her friends.
Caila, an eighth-grader at St. Christine School, won the Governor's Award for Excellence in Manufacturing Sciences Research on Saturday and qualified for the state science fair with her project on bridge construction. Caila thought a suspension bridge would support more weight, but her project testing two different designs proved her wrong.
Youngstown State University was host to about 200 participants in Lake-to-River Science Day, a district science fair. Young scientists in fifth through 12th grades competed for scholarships and cash prizes.
Participants in seventh through 12th grades also worked to qualify for the state science fair May 6 at The Ohio State University.
Caila enjoys science and plans to study medicine. She might want to be a pediatric oncologist or surgeon. "Those are some of my dreams -- but I like bridges, too," she said.
Hannah Champion, a fifth-grader at Kirkmere Elementary, said she enjoyed her first district science fair. She won third place in the city science fair to qualify for Saturday's event. She proved that bars of soap will float if heated.
Going to the state fair
Two seventh-graders from Willow Creek Learning Center, a Christian school on Western Reserve Road, are now preparing for the state science fair.
Zechariah Ciccone grew crystals for about three weeks and determined that vinegar enhances crystal size and growth. He found vinegar's effects interesting because none of the recipes he found for growing crystals used vinegar.
Bence Tama bought three mice and built a wooden maze, determining that the mice could memorize the maze, and performed differently depending on motivation.
"If they were motivated, they'd run it in under a minute," Bence said. "If they weren't, they'd stop and take breaks and wash themselves."
Kasey Foley, an eighth-grader at Neal Middle School, enjoys playing softball, so she chose to compare single- and double-walled softball bats, and proved that double-walled bats perform better.
Sees decline in participation
Dr. Jim Mike hopes participants will return to their home schools and encourage their classmates and teachers to participate.
Mike is YSU associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Lake-to-River Science Day. He was pleased with the quality of projects presented, but is worried about declining participation.
He said science fair participation is declining statewide, and Saturday's 200 entries were the fewest ever for the event. About 350 pupils participated last year, and the highest number was about 600 participants, he said.
Fifth- through 12th-graders participating Saturday represented 25 schools.
Mike thinks ever-increasing demands on teachers, pupils and their families is the reason for the decline.
"We need to get the word out for teachers to put science fair back into the curriculum," Mike said. "Science fair satisfies all the state science standards for teaching, and it's a great experience for the students."
Kasey said she would recommend science fair participation, and offered advice for pupils hesitant to give it a try.
"It's fun because you can see all the different projects and meet a lot of people," she said. "Coming here you can see that everyone gets nervous. If you're nervous about being judged, you just have to get friends to do it with you."