By Fr. Kenneth Borowiak
for the Register
Rows of colorful trifold display boards filled the St. Joseph School gym in York April 23 as judges, parishioners and community members made their way around the tables to review the work of middle school students during the annual science fair.
Students sat beside their projects, with posterboards titled with the subject of their research ready to answer visitors’ questions and explain the conclusions of their scientific investigation.
Sixth-grader Beckham Faller talked about what the science fair meant to him.
“Experimenting was fun,” Beckham said, “I learned a lot.”
Twenty-three students in the fifth through eighth grades participated in the science fair. St. Joseph middle school science teacher Teresa Heiser emphasized that she wanted the students to have fun learning in the science fair.
“The science fair really gives students a chance to explore something new and hopefully develop a love for something science related,” she said.
Heiser explained that the students could choose from an experiment or research project. Experiments could be conducted with trials and data collection, or by replicating an interesting activity they witnessed firsthand or saw online.
Once the students selected topics, they had time to conduct their experiments or collect research. They then worked on summary papers, along with St. Joseph’s English teacher, that described their projects and findings.
The students also created a display board with the most important information about their subject. The display boards were varied and exhibited the students’ personal talents and abilities.
The students made presentations April 23 and each was interviewed by several adults.
The interviewers judged each project based on their interaction with the student, evaluating what they saw on the display board and/or visual aids, and the student’s paper. The results were averaged, along with Heiser’s assessment, to give the students a final grade for their project.
Fifth-grader Hannah Propheter’s project was the question, “Do bio stimulants help corn germinate?”
“My dad works for Pioneer seed, so he recommended that I do something with corn,” Hannah said.
Her display poster entitled, “Are Farmers Correct?” included data and the process by which various bio stimulants are used in planting corn. She also included several jars with germinating corn to give a firsthand visual of her experiment.
“My conclusion supported my hypothesis,” Hannah said. “Bio stimulants do help corn germinate.”
