When it came time to decide on a project for the 2016 Citywide Science Fair, Britton Middle School eighth graders Courtney Spisak and Alyssa Bruno drew their inspiration from band teacher John Bremis.
Bremis jokingly tells his school band that he is going to give Miracle Grow to his trumpet players so they can grow taller. Spisak and Bruno took his words literally and came up with their project titled “Freaky Fertilizers,” where they tested different fertilizers to find out which one makes basil plants grow the tallest.
“Miracle Grow works the best,” concluded Spisak, 13, who partnered with Bruno to claim the first-place prize in the Biological Sciences category. “We thought organic fertilizer would be better.”
Bruno, who worked on the project over a two-month period leading into the Jan. 14 science fair run by the Chamber of Commerce—and held at Oakwood School—noted that the fertilizers had different smells to them and “some were terrible, but the one with no smell did the best.”
The sixth annual citywide science fair featured more than 120 projects and experiments put together by competitors from Britton and Martin Murphy Middle Schools, Jackson Academy of Math & Music and Oakwood School. Broken into two divisions—middle school and high school—the top three winners were selected by a panel of judges in four different categories: Engineering and Physics, Chemistry, Biological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences.
“I’m always impressed at the level that these students take their projects to; so impressive,” said Morgan Hill City Councilwoman Marilyn Librers, who co-chairs the science fair committee. “This is my sixth year doing this and the standard gets higher every year.”
Oakwood sophomore Sameer Varma, 15, earned first place in the Engineering and Physics category for his project titled “Can you hear the beat?,” where he explored the physics of sound. Varma used beat frequencies to generate different types of sounds.
“It’s a huge honor,” said Varma of taking the top prize. “This is a great experience.”
With their project “Purebred vs. Mongrel IQ!,” the Martin Murphy tandem of Nikki Mescaros and Michelle Nguyen placed first in the Behavioral Sciences category. The 12-year-old animal lovers—who also have a dog walking business—ran a series of 10 tests on eight dogs to gauge their intelligence. One challenge they cooked up was having the dogs find their way around an obstacle to claim a treat.
“The students were very excited about (competing in the science fair),” said Britton science teacher Jim Levis. “I was very impressed with the quality of work.”
A pair of Britton eighth graders, Alex Cayme and Prizzy Bosuego, both 13, earned third-place ribbons for their project, “The Power of 17,” where they asked 100 people (50 male, 50 female) to simply choose a number between 1 and 20. In their hypothesis, they predicted that the number 17 would be most popular.
“It really has to do with association,” explained Bosuego, giving examples such as jersey of a favorite player, their birthday or most memorable age when they experienced something special.
“We were curious how many people would choose 17,” said Cayme, who chose 17 because it is her sports jersey number.
Through their Behavioral Science experiment, they found that 17 was the number selected most. Experiments such as this are what make science fascinating for Cayme, while Bosuego said her teacher, George Flores, “makes everything seem so interesting.”
Oakwood sophomore Claire Murphy’s project, titled “Eye Color Genetics,” explored why family members have certain eye colors. She used her own family tree to identify genetic information for four generations, from great grandparents to siblings and cousins.
“There’s a lot we can learn about eye color but still so much to discover,” Murphy, 15, said. “It is possible to identify genetic information of an individual and determine the likelihood of the color of their child’s eyes.”
Oakwood junior Sky Chamberlain, 16, built an old record player from lego parts in his project titled “Homemade Record Player.” While it was “surprisingly simple” to piece one together, it was challenging to build a record player that could produce music.
“It produces sound,” said Chamberlain, who used a hand crank and needle for his record player that was made entirely from items he had at his home. “I’ve gotten it to play a song I can understand, but it’s pretty difficult.”
Inspired by the Hollywood movie “The Martian,” Oakwood junior Christopher Marcotullio, 17, concocted a “Martian soil” and tested its ability to grow crops for his experiment called “Growing Plants on Mars.”
A mixture of iron oxide and rock powder are the elements found on the surface of Mars, according to Marcotullio.
“They grew and grew pretty well,” Marcotullio said. “I thought they might sprout a bit, but not grow as well as they did.”
A total of $500 in scholarship money was split between the six place-winners, and gift cards were awarded to the runner-ups. All participants that received ribbons will be honored at an awards banquet at a later date to be determined.
“We definitely have future scientists in our community, and I’m happy to support their efforts to pursue science,” Librers concluded.
Engineering and Physics: High School: first place: Sameer Varma (Oakwood); second place: Talia Hill (Oakwood); third place: Ashwin Visliesvaran and Ethan Ngo (Oakwood); Middle School: first place: Talia Vaillancourt (Britton); second place: Kenny Cohen (Britton); third place: Tyler Madden (Martin Murphy).
Chemistry: High School: first place: Christian Hardoy (Oakwood); second place: Isabella Rickard (Oakwood); third place: Scott Spano (Oakwood); Middle School: first place Emily Munoz (Martin Murphy); second place: Molly Foster and Gillian McCaw (Britton); third place: Shalimar McGinnis and Sophie Benefiel (Britton).
Biological Sciences: High School: first place: Nike Wolf (Oakwood); second place: Sophia Koldewyn (Oakwood); third place: Andrew Keswick (Oakwood); Middle School: first place: Alyssa Bruno and Courtney Spisak (Britton); second place: Elijah Reyes (Britton); third place: Carlyn Littler and Delainey Weeks (Britton).
Behavioral Sciences: High School: first place: Emily Martin (Oakwood); second place: Eden Wolf (Oakwood); third place: Kyle Stickels (Oakwood); Middle School: first place: Michelle Nguyen and Nicole Katie Mescaros (Martin Murphy); second place: Lizette Lara (Britton); third place: Alexandria Cayme and Prizzy Bosuego (Britton).
