Reported by Lee Bizzini, Lisa Arreola, Pam Jarecki and Joseph Chavez, (TeenBeat Team)

What a sight! Display boards from three schools with research projects and reports covered the tables at the El Tejon Science Fair January 12. This is a breakthrough year, in which fourth through twelfth graders participated—the first time in the last 10 years that all the grades at Frazier Mountain High School have been part of this festival of curiosity.

“Decisions! Decisions!” by 7th grader David Nelson was about pill bugs (also known as roly-poly or wood lice). He wanted to document their choices about the type of environment in which they prefer to live.

Pill bugs are crustaceans, meaning they have a tough outer shell, or exoskeleton. They are related to crabs and crayfish and they breath through structures on their back legs. This causes them to lose moisture rapidly.

His experiment discovered that the pill bugs prefer to live in a wet environment.

Another project was by 6th grader Rachel Hallmark, whose experiment asked which household substance can best prevent rusting. She discovered that an oil and cornstarch mixture is the best to prevent rust.

Knight Jarecki, a 4th grader, showed his “Sight and Sound Memory Test.” The question he asked is whether “people memorize better through sight or sound?” His hypothesis was that people memorize better through sight than sound. He tested 26 people using six, 14-second movies. Three were sound and three were sight. Both were divided into three categories (letters, numbers and colors).The person tested would hear or see 8 objects, memorize them and then record them on a test paper. Jarecki learned that his subjects did memorize better through sight.

Four high school students qualified to go on to the Kern County Regional Science Fair on March 12-13 at the Rabobank in Bakersfield.

Freshman Jamie Bizzini is a four-year Kern County Science Fair Participant. Senior Josh Arreola has been to the county competition seven times. This will be the fifth year competing at the county level for Junior Forrest Csulak. Junior Joe Chavez will be returning for his second year.

Lisa Arreola reports that “any high school student participating at the Kern County Regional Science Fair at least once during their high school years, who shows a strong interest and achievement in the sciences or engineering, will qualify to apply during their senior year in high school for a Kern County Science Foundation Scholarship.”

2012 El Tejon Unified School District Science Fair Winners will go on to the Kern  County Science Fair

4th grade
William Edwards–
Does Your Geode
Have a Cavity?;
Knight Jarecki–Sight
and Sound Memory Test
5th grade
Tristan Csulak–The
Turbulent Tunnel
6th grade
Rachel Hallmark–
Exploring Rust
Prevention;
Kelly Stegeman–
Melting Miniature
Glaciers;
Michael Stegeman–
Stealth Tech;
Mason Townsend
(PMLC)–Got Water?
7th grade
Fletcher Matthews–Spin
Right ‘Round with Electric
Motors;
Joe Bizzini/Brent Howell–
No Desire for Fire;
David Nelson–Decisions!
Decisions!
8th grade
Lily Hallmark–Improving
Your Non-Dominant
Kicking Performance
FMHS
Josh Arreola (12th)–
Well, Blow Me Down!
Re-engineering Tesla’s
Designs to Create a More
Efficient Wind Turbine;
Jamie Bizzini (9th)–
Hay is for Horses;
Joseph Chavez (11th)
–Hovercraft;
Forrest Csulak (11th)
Catalytic Conundrum

This is part of the January 27, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.