Students Wow at Hillside Science Fair

Ever wonder if seltzer is better than water for plant growth?  Or how much your pulse rises during video game play?  Were you ever curious as to how dogs react to different types of music?  All these questions and more were answered at the Hillside Elementary School science fair. 

On Friday, Hillside’s fifth grade class presented a science fair for the rest of the school and invited parents to come and learn the results of certain hypothesizes thought up by the students.

This is the first year that a science fair has been presented by a Livingston elementary school.  When she , principal Cara Szeles suggested to fifth grade science teacher Christopher Ebneth that they try bringing a science fair to the school.

Ebneth brought in books to his class to engage them into coming up with a testable hypothesis that the students could put through the scientific process.  The basic scientific process involves asking a question, researching a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, analyzing the data and drawing a conclusion. 

Earlier this year, Ebneth showed them how the process works during a countrywide project from the Canadian Space Agency and NASA called Tomatosphere.  Tomatosphere is a research project that involves around 13,000 North American classrooms.  Students plant tomato seeds from two sets of seeds, one in a simulated space environment and the other in a control group.  The results are then shared with NASA.

“I wanted them to see how the scientific process works by using Tomatosphere,” said Ebneth.  “Then they were able to go forward on their own and apply the skills that they learned.”

The students were able to choose their own hypothesize to test and many of them based it on their own personal likes and dislikes.  An example was a group of students who tested whether a stride in pitching a baseball helps its velocity.  Another student who was an avid fan of frogs tested whether frogs preferred a lighter or darker environment.

After the students performed their experiments, they put together diagrams to show off the results.  The Hillside PTA supplied the students with the tri-folds needed to display their projects.

“(The PTA) bought the tri-folds so that every student had the same amount of space to display their projects,” said Ebneth.  “The PTA is really great to us.”

Daniel Calligaro, Livingston Public School’s science supervisor, came to the fair to check out the students projects and came away “very impressed” with the program.

“These Students are inquisitive and this is a way to turn it into a learning experience,” said Calligaro.  “It gives every student, no matter their ability, the opportunity to excel.  Some may not be good writers, but this gives them a chance to do a report with pictures and data.  Some may not be good at math, but this gives them a chance to use some critical thinking.”

Following the fair, the projects were brought back to the classroom to be graded by Ebneth, based on how they followed the scientific process.