With the Britton Middle School gymnasium filled to near capacity for its fourth annual science fair—which displayed projects from about 320 eighth-grade students—classmates Eliza Martin and Xuan Nguyen wore white T-shirts with words and drawings that helped detail their experiment titled, “Poo-Ti-Fuel.”
Over the course of the first semester, the two 13-year-olds tested different organic matter to identify which produced the best biofuel. One of those substances chosen by the duo—and colorfully drawn on the front of their shirts—was cow manure.
“We put the variables in bottles filled with water and strapped a balloon on the top,” explained Nguyen, minutes after she and Martin received first-place blue ribbons awarded to winners in seven different categories Tuesday night. “We recorded the data over one week and measured the energy created by the circumference of the balloon.”
Their hypothesis was correct: the bananas and cow manure were tied for producing the most biofuel ahead of mixed vegetables.
“It was really an honor to win,” Martin said. “We put a lot of work into our project.”
Another first-place finisher, 13-year-old Gabe Milos, was equally as excited with the results from his experiment measuring the difference in distance of a ball struck by a cork-filled baseball bat and a standard one.
“It’s lighter so you can swing the bat faster,” said Milos, a Morgan Hill Pony Baseball League player who was inspired for his project after watching an old Chicago Cubs game in which slugger Sammy Sosa was caught using a corked bat. “I wasn’t expecting to win. It was cool, though.”
Twins Satyen and Shrayen Patel, blue ribbon winners in the Chemistry category, thought it would be cool to examine, “What’s in Your Drink?,” for their science project. They discovered that there is more sugar content in organic orange and apple juices than in Coca-Cola and Diet Coke. However, “the sugar in the juice was good sugar,” Satyen Patel explained.
The top four finishers in each category, including Biology, Botany, Behavioral, Engineering/Electricity, Physics and Chemistry, received ribbons and their entry tickets to the Jan. 15 citywide science fair that puts Britton’s students up against fellow eighth-graders from Martin Murphy Middle School and Oakwood School.
“What’s really nice is they have been working on their projects since September and this has really been a culmination of the entire semester,” said Britton science teacher Jim Levis. “We really tied together all of the school. This is a multi-disciplinary project. It just happens to be under science.”
Levis, as well as colleague George Flores, stressed that students drew from many school subjects—using a variety of graphing and data tables used in mathematics and computer classes as well as writing abstracts to describe their work taught in English class.
“Overall, I was very impressed with the projects,” said Flores, who was named MHUSD’s 2014 Educator of the Year earlier in the evening. “Our goal is to take the top students to the county.”
More than 40 judges, many of them former Britton students and now AP Science students at either Live Oak or Ann Sobrato high schools, selected the best of the best. Per science fair rules, each project must have variables (independent and controlled) and measurables (dependent variable) based on changes they make to their independent variable.
Students Elenah Zuniga, 13, and Julisa Artiaga, 14, tested out some classic home remedies in their project, titled “The Mystery of the Myths.”
“We wanted to find out if they worked or not because they kept being used,” Artiaga said.
In addition to asking family, friends and other adults which remedies they’ve used over the years and how they turned out, the partners tested to see if shaving cream removed stains (it worked on ketchup but not mustard) and if eggs and mayonnaise made hair shiny (they both do).
“More than half of them worked,” Zuniga said.
Schoolmate Haley Young, 13, went solo in her experiment to see which antibacterial and baby wipes were the most effective. She found out that Lysol and Pampers were the best.
“Science and math are my favorite subjects,” Young said. “And a lot of math had to do with my (science) project.”
Taking first place in Biology, Samuel Van Rhijn’s “Oxygen in the Tank” measured how the size of fish correlates to the oxygen level in the tank.
“It was fun to see what other people did (for their projects) and how it affects the world,” said Rhijn, who was already planning to make some edits to his project before the city competition.
Partners Eliana Ojeda, 13, and Samantha Joice, 14, bested the Engineering/Electricity division with their project, “Potato Battery,” where they determined that red potatoes generated more voltage than white or Russet potatoes.
“I love science,” Joice said. “It’s my favorite subject.”
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2014 Britton Science Fair Award-winners
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Chemistry: 1st place, Satyen Patel/Shrayen Patel; 2nd place, Ana Figuero/Kaiti Hubbs; 3rd place, Michael Pham; honorable mention Nolan Adams/Henry Main.
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Physics: 1st, Gabriel Milos; 2nd, Gavin Vallez/Jonathan Singleton; 3rd, Hayden Byers/Geoffrey Johnson; honorable mention, Colton Donner.
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Environmental/Earth: 1st, Eliza Martin/Xuan Nguyen; 2nd, Haley Young; 3rd, Justin Jud/Ryan Wensmann; honorable mention, Heather Sailor/Audra Clark.
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Behavioral: 1st, Jenna Watson; 2nd, Bjorn Viney; 3rd, Ashley Balbo/Leeann Gile; honorable mention, Ben Waddington/Nick Sykes.
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Engineering/Electricity: 1st, Eilana Ojeda/Samantha Joice; 2nd, Jared Brown; 3rd, Nick Dimidik; honorable mention, Jacob Majors / Max Brown
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Biology: 1st, Samuel Van Rhijn; 2nd, Tiffany Lam/Samantha Main; 3rd, Dasia Francis/Biance Grey-Sunzeri; honorable mention, Manuel Aldana.
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Botany: 1st, Evan Crowhurst; 2nd, Kaitlyn Rosenberger; 3rd, Andrew Jaurigue; honorable mention, Brian Wilde.
