Science fair held in Hot Springs

HOT SPRINGS - Wednesday night in the Hot Springs School multipurpose room, students from kindergarten to sixth grade showcased a month’s worth of scientific investigations and exploration to their parents, teachers and fellow classmates.  

“We gave them all of their packets about a month ago,” said Alisha Pablo, the third grade teacher. She then explained the requirements for the projects, “All of this had to be done at home with a parent helper... They just got to pick whatever they entered and they had to have it approved.”

Some students chose to work independently or work in pairs on a project. In total there were nine entries. Pablo explained that the science fair project was not required, the students did it of their own free will and they just had a few requirements they had to meet.

Once the students had either researched a topic of interest and compiled their finding or conducted an experiment following the scientific method, they had to create a display to be brought in for Wednesday night’s science fair.

Some students recreated their experiments while others presented models of their scientific finding. The projects included research into the workings of a black hole, density experiments or what lays beneath the earth’s crust that creates volcanoes.

In front of everyone that visited the fair the students had to give a demonstration to the whole crowd. Bella Ilac and Brooke Jackson, the ones that explained how a volcano works, went as far to not just give a detailed explanation into the workings of a volcano but created their own.

Sitting in front of their display, which described their findings, was a homemade volcano made from foam. Underneath it, hidden was a fan and when turned on, spewed small bits of red and yellow paper out, just as a volcano would magma and lava.

Sarah Rafter and Linsay Burgner explained what salinity, saturation and density are to the crowd. By mixing food dye, sugar water and saltwater in different containers and then slowly pouring the two into one container they were able to show how the less dense sugar water floated on top of the denser salt water.

After each demonstration, Superintendent Kevin Meredith, would ask a couple of questions to the scientists to test their knowledge. When all the entries had gone, Superintendent Meredith and Pablo convened for about 10 minutes to discuss who would be the winners of the fair.

The winners were; third place - Austin and Elijah Campbell, second - Josie Uski, and first - Kara Christensen.

“My mom helped me, I mostly did all the research,” said Uski, a fourth grader. Her project was about how black holes are formed. Prior to her starting the project, her class took a field trip to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT. There the class saw a planetarium showing.

With her class, Uski learned what black holes are and how they form. When it came time for her to enter the science fair she knew exactly what she wanted to research and give a talk about. Using a balloon and foil, she gave a talk on how a black hole is created after a star dies.