Young Einsteins woo crowd at science fair

150 student projects on display at Community Park Elementary School.

By: Rachel Silverman
   Some made volcanoes. Others constructed models of the solar system. And a few enterprising young scientists toyed with the electrifying properties of static energy.
   With projects running the gamut from physics to biology, Community Park Elementary School’s science fair drew a packed house of students, parents and teachers to its gymnasium-turned-laboratory-quarters on Thursday evening.
   The science fair, which featured about 150 student projects, rounded out a weeklong science initiative in the elementary school.
   "Parents who are scientists go into classrooms during the week," said Marilyn Besner, a member of the Parent Teacher Organization, describing one of the other science week programs.
   "We have a post-doc at Princeton talking about chemicals, a guy who teaches at Rutgers on statistical genetics, an optics professor speaking to the kindergarten students," Ms. Besner said, listing some of the week’s presenters.
   "We also have the Franklin Institute travel exhibition doing two assemblies on life and space," Ms. Besner added.
   The activities aim to expose students to the world of science and to provide them with a distinct curiosity about the world around them.
   "Science is an area of knowledge that is best learnt by doing," fellow PTO organizer Annarie Lyles said. "Participating in a science project is a way of learning about, and perhaps demystifying, the scientific process," the mother of two Community Park students said.
   "The Community Park Parent Teacher Organization sponsors a variety of programs that focus on different areas, including science, various arts, physical fitness, reading and language, and charity," Ms. Lyles continued, citing the motivation behind such science programming. "This science fair and Science Week are part of the mix," she added.
   Community Park students, for their part, seemed to think the science fair’s variety of colorful displays and interactive experiments made for a highly entertaining evening.
   Third-graders Anna LaPlaca and Nancy Weiss, for example, used their project, Eye of the Storm, to demonstrate one of the mystifying properties of hurricanes.
   "We put some water here and hung a string and beads from there," Anna said, pointing to the contraption on display. "If you spin it around, you see it’s calm in the middle," she said, rotating the mixture to illustrate how the eye of a storm is indeed safe from surrounding turbulence.
   For fourth-graders Leo Blooston, Power Lee and Kobe Lewin, the science fair offered the opportunity to explore one of their all-time favorite topics — chocolate.
   "We looked at the history, health benefits and nature of chocolate," Kobe said as he pointed to the team’s mouth-watering posterboard.
   "It’s a lot more healthy than people think it is," Leo said, citing the results of their investigation. "It’s like healthy for you because of the antioxidants."
   Just a few feet away, fellow fourth-grader Vicente Cristen Flavio spoke excitedly about a topic close to his heart.
   "Me and my dad went fishing and we caught it," Vicente said as he cradled a small turtle in his hands. "I learned they can eat spiders, fish and flies. I thought they only ate small stuff," he pointed out.