For Lyon Frey-San Martin, animals are among his favorite things. He said Japanese macaques, jaguars and slow lorises interest him most.
When it came time for the Dewey Elementary Science Fair this year, making his project about animals was the natural choice.
On Wednesday evening, students like Lyon showed off their science experiments to other students and parents at Dewey’s annual fair. Any third-, fourth- or fifth-grader was invited to participate in the event, for which they worked individually or in groups. Afterward, each student walked away with tickets to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
“I think they really enjoy creating the project board, doing some experimentation [and] asking questions of their world,” said Troy Foster, who runs the Science Fair Committee at the school.
Third-grader Lyon did his project on animal mimicry.
Joy Frey, his mom, said the idea originated when the pair were discussing how the slow loris mimics a cobra.
“I thought it would be a good science experiment,” Lyon said.
Students could create a project about any topic of their choosing.
Josiah Singleton, Thad Garrison and Oscar Lee looked at what makes Mentos and Coke bubble and examined the different reactions when Mentos are placed in Coke, sugar water, seltzer, water and old Coke.
The three agreed that their favorite part of the science fair is seeing projects from other groups.
Colette Crawford and Levi Lang investigated how salt affects evaporation.
“We wanted to learn about the ocean, but it didn’t work out right,” Levi Lang said. “We changed to evaporation with salt because the ocean is basically just a whole lot of salt, so we wanted to figure out how all that water evaporates through the salt.”
Levi Lang explained that the pair used four jars to carry out their experiment: Jar A had no salt; Jar B had one tablespoon of salt; Jar C had two tablespoons and Jar D had three tablespoons.
“Another thing we learned is that when salt and heat mix, it makes crystals,” Colette said.
Even though students are not required to participate, Foster said teachers are supportive of the science fair.
“We go into the classrooms and go over the scientific method with the kids, and we do a 30-minute period of just talking about the scientific method. We do an experiment with them to try to encourage them, excite them about doing science, and then ask ‘What projects are you going to do?’” Foster said.
Tamar Blits’s project examined whether lemons could provide a source of power.
Tamar found that the size of a single lemon does not impact voltage, but two lemons doubles the voltage from just one.
“I was thinking whether we should do this or something with solar panels, but we didn’t know where we would get solar panels so we ended up doing lemons,” she said.
Her mom, Sharon Blits, said both coming up with and executing an idea as well as explaining the project to other people is good for the kids.
“It’s good practice for life, too,” she said.
Sadie Lang, Emilia Sariñana and Andrea Duarte studied how sugar in beverages affects teeth.
The three third-graders submerged eggs in different beverages, including water, Gatorade, orange juice, Sprite and Coke. Then, after three days, they observed how the eggs changed.
Sadie, Emilia and Andrea said they enjoy learning about new subjects at the science fair.
“There’s a lot of different [projects], but then people come and you get to explain your topic,” Emilia said. “You get to explain why this made you interested and what influenced you to do this, and that’s really fun for me.”
Cora Foster and another student completed their project on how wind impacts the flight of a saucer.
“What I like most [about the science fair] is probably learning the science and making the board,” she said.
Committee head Troy Foster is also Cora’s dad. He said he values the support that the science fair receives.
“We really appreciate that our community comes out and the kids and parents all work together and come out and do a great night like this. The school supports it, and the PTA supports it,” he said. “We know this is a university town, and we really feel that instilling critical thinking and science into our kids is really important.”