Orange County Science and Engineering Fair Nominees
We are pleased to announce that seven of our eighth graders are nominees for the Orange County Science and Engineering Fair (OCSEF). The judging will take place this Wednesday (3/14). Our students have been working very hard on their research. Here is a preview of the students’ entries and their thoughts about the projects.
To view all of the eighth grade projects, come to Carden Hall’s own Science Fair this Friday (3/16). A special thanks to our teachers who made this possible!
Congratulations, nominees, and best of luck!
Zachary Ditta
Investigative Question: How much bacteria is picked up when you drop a piece of bread on the ground for five and thirty seconds at the following locations: McDonalds, Starbucks, the park, the sidewalk, a kitchen floor?
What drew your interest to your particular topic?
I wanted to know if the five second rule is actually true and how much bacteria would be picked up.
How did you come to focus on your particular question?
I was curious about how time would affect the amount of bacteria picked up.
How would you continue/add to your project?
I would add more times and different foods to see if different textures have different effects.
If you had to choose a career in science, which field would you choose? Why?
Chemistry, because I find it really interesting when I see different things combining to make something new.
Sophia Herbert
Investigative Question: How does dissolving 2.9g, 5.8g, and 11.7g of table salt, and 17.1g, 34.2g, and 68.5g of sugar in 100mL of water influence the freezing point of the solution?
What drew your interest to your particular topic?
I had seen people dump salt on an icy road before; I knew that the salt prevents ice from forming, but I didn’t know exactly why, or by how much it affected the ice. I thought it could be a good topic for our science fair.
How did you come to focus on your particular question?
As I stated in number one, I wanted to find out how much salt impacted the roads. How does salt affect the freezing point of a solution?
How would you continue/add to your project?
I would add rubbing alcohol and combine the solutions.
If you had to choose a career in science, which field would you choose? Why?
I would choose a career in oceanology. The entire ocean is very interesting to me.
Kate Kaiser
Investigative Question: Which municipal water source will have the least amount of bacteria: Los Angeles County, Orange County, Ventura County, or Riverside County?
What drew your interest to your particular topic?
I was drawn to the question of the quality of tap-water. I spent the first few years of my life in Chicago where my mother says the tap water was very good and she drank it all the time. We moved to Newport Beach and my family stopped drinking the tap-water because they didn’t like the taste and I wondered if it was the taste or if there was something more going on regarding the water quality.
How did you come to focus on your particular question?
I focused on this topic because I have many family members living close to me but in very different counties and environments. We all love to drink bottled water, and I started wondering why we were always using our money on bottled water. Isn’t the tap water we drink good enough?
How would you continue/add to your project?
I’d love to take samples from more counties in California and from more states. I’d analyze not just bacteria levels but chlorine and pH levels. These are important factors for taste and health.
If you had to choose a career in science, which field would you choose? Why?
If I chose a career in science, I would love to study genetics. My niece has a rare genetic disorder, and I find it interesting that some people can have a bad gene and pass it onto their children and some people don’t pass it on. I’d love to help people with these abnormalities.
Duncan Needham
Investigative Question: At what temperature will copper have the least and greatest resistance?
What drew your interest to your particular topic?
I was curious as to how computers work.
How did you come to focus on your particular question?
I wanted to understand why it is hard to make computers smaller.
How would you continue/add to your project?
I would test the conductivity of other elements or compounds.
If you had to choose a career in science, which field would you choose? Why?
I would choose cognitive science because I am interested in psychology and computers.
Deven Pence
Investigative Question: Which type of wood, Oak, Mahogany, Pine, or Maple loses the most mass when burned for three minutes?What drew your interest to your particular topic?
My family and I go camping every summer. We roast marshmallows for s’mores around a campfire as part of our tradition. I became interested in my project because I wanted to know which type of wood would typically be the best for a campfire.
How did you come to focus on your particular question?
For a good campfire, the wood used should be able to burn for a long period of time, so I tested which type of wood would lose the most amount of mass in a specific period of time.
How would you continue/add to your project?
If I were to continue my project, I would test more types of wood and burn them for a longer period of time. That way I could get wider results and narrow the results for the best type of wood.
If you had to choose a career in science, which field would you choose? Why?
I would choose the medical field and focus on brains. That is because my grandpa had brain cancer, and I want to make a difference in that field of science.
Katherine Rafla
Investigative Question: How fast does invertase enzyme convert sucrose into glucose? How does this change the amount of glucose we digest?
What drew your interest to your particular topic?
I know some people that have diabetes, and I wanted to find more information on it.
How did you come to focus on your particular question?
I learned that there are different types of sugars. I wanted to know what each type of sugar was and what it does in the body. I also wanted to know how fast it metabolizes.
How would you continue/add to your project?
I would use different solutions to test. For example, soy sauce or other solutions that don’t seem sweet but they actually have a surprising amount of sugar in them.
If you had to choose a career in science, which field would you choose? Why?
I would choose a career in medicine because I could help find a solution to medical illnesses.
Jake Watkins
Investigative Question: Can organic fertilizers stimulate plant growth? If so, which organic fertilizer is the most effective?
What drew your interest to your particular topic?
I was interested in how much fertilizers would impact the growth of snapdragons.
How did you come to focus on your particular question?
There is a lot of controversy about whether fertilizers should be used because they can be harmful to the environment. I wanted to see if they impacted the growth so much that those problems could be overlooked.
How would you continue/add to your project?
I would redo the project with the same soil but different plants because organic fertilizers return nutrients to the soil over time, so it would be interesting to test this theory.
If you had to choose a career in science, which field would you choose? Why?
I would go into some type of medicine because that really interests me.If you are interested in more information about OCSEF, check out their Science Fair Website