Science Fair

On Thursday, the school held a science fair.  Eliana did a project called, "Can car engines pop popcorn?" She designed her experiment herself and did the board arranging  herself as well (she had some guidance from Darryl, but she is very self-directed).  She put some popcorn kernels in aluminum foil with some oil, attached a thermometer, and fastened it all to the car's engine.  Then she had Darryl drive the truck to the freeway and back (they took a fire extinguisher along, just in case).  She learned that the engine DOES get hot enough to pop the popcorn.  In fact, in melted the front of the thermometer slightly, and burned the popcorn.  Her conclusion was that while engines CAN pop popcorn, they don't do a very good job.  She wrote, "we should stick to microwaves and popcorn makers."  She won third place for the second grade.

William investigated what makes bananas ripen fastest.  He came up with the design for the experiment and did most of the writing on his board.  He helped me choose graphics to print to explain his design and results.  He tried three tests.  First, he put one banana next to an avocado, and one by itself.  They took the same amount of time to ripen.  He decided that maybe the gas from the ripe fruit just went into the air instead of affecting the banana, so we did another test where we stuck some bananas in a paper bag with an apple, and kept some out.  The ones in the bag ripened really quickly.  He then wondered if they'd ripen even faster in an air-tight bag.  That turned out not to be the case.  We later learned that in order for ethylene gas to work as a ripener, it needs oxygen.  He won first place for kindergarten.  He was glad to win, but was a little disappointed that he now has to talk to judges all over again at the district science fair.

I'm proud of both of them.  They used the scientific method to answer their questions, and had fun learning.