Students take on energy, DNA, sound
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Some of the things you could have learned at Saturday’s science fair at Hillsborough High School:
Thick strings on acoustic guitars produce lower sounds, and thin strings give high tones.
Refrigerating popcorn at home produces the best taste. Room temperature is second best, but don’t store popcorn in a heated area. It’ll tend to burn more when popped.
When you shower, you use hot water faster than you would cold.
Germinating sunflowers grow best in an environment with rock music, with no music better than classical. But the jury’s still out on that the one that grew the most maybe just got more sunlight.
The district’s robotics club, the RoboRaiders, sponsored the activity, which it hopes to make an annual event, said Elina Dave, a student representing the club.
Some youngsters admitted they turned to the Internet, found a list of potential experiments and chose one that plucked their fancy.
Others, like Bridgewater eighth-grader Rita Kat Sasse, used a PVC pipe, workout bench, metal can, music stand, two batteries and a rubber exercise band to configure her exhibit. She propelled a wooden dowel like a slingshot through the pipe for 6 feet where it hit the can and dropped at the same time.
She’s motivated by science to the point she has a quote by Madame Curie on her home screen on her cell phone. It reads, “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
How fast something is traveling doesn’t affect how fast it will drop from gravity; they are independent factors, she concluded.
Hillsborough’s Mauricio Guerrero and Sean Proske challenged visitors to guess whether a round wheel with weights on the outside rim will move faster than one with weights near the center.
An enthusiastic Hillsborough sophomore, Nick Bellamy, who “sold” his exhibit through his exuberance more than a simple poster board exhibit, won first place among high schoolers.
The fair was another effort by the RoboRaiders to promote science and technology education. Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Jorden Schiff welcomed the exhibitors and organizers with opening comments.
Grades five and six: First, “Color in Milk,” by Jackie Eschbach and Swara Ramaswamy; second, “Brain vs. Computer” by Soham Sen, Vikas Karipeddy and Rahul Banerjee, and third, “Ecosystems” by Aahna Rathod, Bridget Eilers and Nidhi Kunigal.
Grades seven and eight: First went to “Alternative Energy” by Hasith Bomma, Sreeakhil Pulipaka and Maanav Patel of Bridgewater; second, “Acid Rain” by Kritika Sekar, and third, “Velocity,” by Rita Kat Sasse.
Grades nine to 12: First, “DNA” by Nick Bellamy; second, inertia demonstration by Sean Proske, Adam Solovay and Mauricio Guerrero-Nieto, and third, “The Science of Guitars” by Alex Duncan, Nick Defex and Ryan Keller.

