17 December 2004
Science fair time
Forrest M. Mims III
Fall and winter are science fair season across the
United States and some other countries. Thousands of
schools in the U.S. hold science fairs. Winners of these
fairs advance to regional and national competitions
that will be held from March through May 2005.
Adult amateur scientists can learn much from visiting
a science fair, for students comprise by far the largest
fraction of amateur scientists without academic credentials.
With this in mind, herewith is a column that reports
on the recent science fair at Seguin High School (SHS)
in Seguin, Texas.
The judges of this fair included Dr. John Sieben and
Dr. Reza Abbasian of Texas Lutheran University, Dr.
Scott Bugai of Parkview Veterinary Center and Andrew
Skelton of Seguin High School.
Careful judging by competent professionals is the hallmark
of a good science fair. The SHS science fair judges
did a superb job of carefully reviewing the projects
and interviewing students.
I especially liked the way that Dr. Sieben suggested
new research ideas to some students. If you are one
of them, take his advice seriously, for Dr. Sieben is
the Dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics
at TLU and a past president of the Texas Academy of
Science.
Grand prizes in the biological science division were
awarded to James Kucherka, Amber Metzner and Christy
Nguyen.
James Kucherka studied "The Future of Hazardous Waste"
and found that modern aerobic disposal systems are better
than traditional septic systems.
In "Wash Away Your Troubles," Amber Metzner looked for
mutant strains of bacteria that are resistant to the
bactericide used in a popular brand of soap. She looked
for these bacteria on shopping cart handles.
Christy Nguyen measured the starch content of various
foods in "Counting Carbs?". Rice and potatoes had the
highest starch content of the foods she tested.
Grand prizes in the physical science division were
awarded to Bill Shupe, Lans Martin and Sarah Neumann.
Bill Shupe continued his study of permanent magnets
and artificial magnets powered by electricity in "How
Attractive are Your Magnets?". His project display was
among the best at the fair.
Last year Lans Martin proved that an inexpensive Radio
Shack instrument that measures sunlight can measure
haze about as well as a NASA satellite.
This year Lans studied "Sun Photometers-–Comparison
of a Manual and an Automated Instrument." He found that
his measurements of haze with a Radio
Shack Sun and Sky Monitoring Station are reasonably
well correlated with those made by the Department of
Agriculture’s instruments at TLU.
Sarah Neumann studied "Paper Chromatography--The Will
or the Way." She found that acetone works better than
water and isopropyl alcohol at sorting out the various
pigments found in many liquids.
There were manu more projects at the SHS science fair.
Those described here were only the major prize winners.
I hope they have motivated readers to visit a nearby
science fair.
Forrest M. Mims III and his science are featured online
at www.forrestmims.org 
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