“I walk home every day from school and my back hurts,” fourth grader Destinee said. Her solution to this problem was hooked over my shoulders before I had a chance to argue with her. Too bad none of her fellow students created a time machine so I could go back a few decades to make better use of her heated, massaging backpack.
Destinee said she was also inspired by her mother, who she described with admiration, as a hard worker.
The Annie Fisher STEM Magnet School student was just one of over 300 participants at Wednesday’s 25th Annual Hartford Public Schools’ S.T.E.M. Expo/Science Fair, held in Trinity College’s Koeppel Community Center.
Second graders at Burr Elementary explained how they experimented to see
how far balloons could travel based on size. The largest balloon won. None popped.
Batchelder Elementary students were excited about the pizza party they had for their student teacher whose last day was Friday. She helped with the project to learn which of six different substances worked best to clean pennies. Jayashree, Kamayah, and Jayden explained, mostly in unison, that Sierra Mist worked best.
A group of sixth graders from Batchelder worked at home, with help from a brother, to find out which type of chocolate — white, milk, or dark — melts fastest. Their display included pots and candy wrappers. There might be a reason, besides taste, for why nobody uses white chocolate when making s’mores.
Anna Essick, an eighth grade student at Classical Magnet School, was excited to talk about how organic foods are healthier than conventional ones. She purchased lettuce from an “organic market” and from a “regular” store this winter, stripped the leaves, and placed the stems in small bowls of water. Even though there was less light at that time of year, she saw results: the organic lettuce sprouted more and healthier leaves. Now, with better weather, she’s trying it again. The results, only a few days old right now, were displayed.
Essick said she was surprised to learn from research that a way to reduce one’s risk of developing breast cancer is to avoid chemicals in food.
It is not always easy to know which foods are organic, so Essick provided tips for reading produce stickers– those with four digits were grown “conventionally.” Ones with five digits that begin with a “9” were grown organically.
Hartford Public Schools hosted the fair, along with support from partners Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance, Trinity College, and the Reach Foundation.
According to the program, judges include roughly 70 individuals representing Trinity College, AAAC, CCMC, UConn, UConn Health Center, Inga Consulting Engineers, United Technologies Research Center, Hartford Hospital, Manchester Community College, Hispanic Health Council, Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford, ACE Youth Project, Inc., URAS, Kelly Kirkley-Bey, Clinical Laboratory Partners, Teach for America, Active City, Neag School of Education, UTC Aerospace Systems, Richard D. Pinder, ECSU, and Connecticut Rivers Council, Boy Scouts of America.
Winners will be announced and awarded in one week, on May 28, 2014, at the Connecticut Science Center.
Richard
I smiled all the way through this posting. What great kids.
Kerri Provost
They were really fun to listen to…there was a lot of free association from the smallest ones, along with camera grabbing (“What is this?”) and posing for shots. Too bad most of their parents had not signed photo waivers.
There was a whole area for apps and video, but I intentionally chatted with the k-8 bunch and stayed in the “traditional science fair” and “invention” areas.