Fair at YSU embraces the current issues

A few fourth-graders also showed their scientific sides.

By SEAN BARRON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — A big concern for Brett Wilson is global warming and its potentially devastating consequences.

In that light, perhaps it’s not surprising that the Chaney High School freshman would choose that topic as the basis for his school science project.

“There’s so many problems in the world today,” Brett said. “There’s so many weather problems like Hurricane Katrina, drought and floods; the earth is out of whack.”

Brett, who is in Dennis Malaska’s science class, added that he’s read “An Inconvenient Truth,” the best-selling book by former Vice President Al Gore that talks about what Gore sees as the disastrous effects of global warming. He’s also seen the movie of the same title.

So he conducted a series of experiments to test the correlation between planting more foliage and decreasing the causes of global warming. His conclusion was that areas devoid of greenery tend to have higher temperatures and humidity with higher amounts of ultraviolet rays being trapped — the ingredients for global warming.

Brett’s was one of dozens of science exhibits on display at Saturday’s annual Youngstown City Schools All-City Science Day competition in Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center. The program featured projects by city pupils in grades five through 12 whose experiments focused on everything from magnetism to paper towel absorbency.

About 35 judges circulated the room and rated the works before an awards ceremony at which the top-rated finishers received medals, and became eligible to participate in the Lake-to-River science competition, set for March 8 at YSU. That event will include youngsters from Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties.

Peaking Noel Colbert’s curiosity was how combining yeast, water and sugar would impact blowing up a balloon. The West Elementary fifth-grader found that the greater the quantity of sugar, the higher the amount of gas the yeast gives off, making the task easier.

“I just wanted to try it. It took about a week,” Noel said.

After reading about magnets, Drake York gathered two toy cars and attached disc and bar magnets to each. He wanted to see what conditions make two magnets attract and repel each other.

“It inspired me looking through books to read about magnets, and that it was a neat idea,” explained Drake, a sixth-grader at Volney Rogers Middle School.

Not every project relied on esoteric findings and theories, however. Others focused on static electricity, what color of candle burns the fastest, and the relationship between listening to music and being able to memorize words.

Kaitlyn Cook, a Chaney freshman, based her work on how heat affects the coagulation of eggs. Higher temperatures allow the protein in egg whites and yolks to become firmer more quickly, she noted.

Even though they weren’t part of the competition, several fourth-graders brought their projects to the event. Scarlett Russell, a pupil at West, compared three brands of bubble gum and found that the one with the greatest elasticity made it possible to “blow the biggest bubbles.”

Kemoni Bailey, also of West, discovered that many people don’t recognize a food’s flavor if its natural color is altered. Kemoni called his experiment “Tricking the Brain.”

Both thanked Dorothy Leonard, a city schools mentor, for her help. Kemoni and Scarlett were two of six fourth-graders to receive ribbons for their projects and participation.

Individual projects received scores up to 40 points, with 10 points each for showing knowledge, using the scientific method, displaying clarity of expression, and having creativity and originality, explained Cathy Constance, the district’s supervisor of science and foreign languages. Categories were life science, technology, earth science, mathematics, physical science and environmental science.

Constance noted that pupils had to do more than simply conduct an experiment or demonstration to be eligible for the science fair. It was imperative they correctly use terminology, graphs, charts and tables; have a hypothesis, abstract element, problem statement and conclusion; rely on several sources for research; and satisfy other criteria, she said.