Claremont School Fourth-Graders Explore the Wonders of Science

Will chilling an onion before cutting it keep you from crying? Do clear and colored ice cubes take the same amount of time to melt? Does gluten-free food taste as good as food with gluten? Does exposure to light affect how long it takes bananas to spoil?

These were some of the burning questions students tackled for Claremont School’s annual science fair. Fourth-graders packed the gym with their poster boards and props, from maple syrup and dish detergent to cookies, potatoes and a voltage meter.

For their experiment, Lianna Pietronuto and Kayla Hutchinson predicted that sodas with sugar and without sugar would both sink in a tub of water. But their hypothesis was proven wrong – the seltzer and sugar-free sodas floated while Dr. Brown’s, Coca Cola and others sank to the bottom.

“The sugar makes it sink because of the calories,” Lianna said.

Maddox Cumberland and William Walker immersed a raw egg in vinegar for an extended period of time. The vinegar ate away at the shell, leaving a rubbery egg. They put a flashlight underneath the egg to show the translucence.

Across the gym, Maya Cohen showed off lava lamps she had made using oil, food coloring, Alka-Seltzer tablets, water and a plastic bottle. When the lamps settle, the oil goes to the bottom and the color floats to the top, but they can be reactivated by shaking them or adding more Alka-Seltzer.

Maya said she had fun with the experiment. “I did not know that it would be that cool,” she said.

The team of Youmbi Adiele, Sophia Deagustini, Laura Peralta and Shani Quinde used borax, pipe cleaners, string and boiling water to grow crystals. They also tried making eggshell crystals, but those were not as successful.

“Our teachers thought that it was so amazing,” Laura said.

Aiden Neri found that the lower the pH of a liquid, the better it cleaned dirty pennies. So Drano, which has a pH level of 11, didn’t do the job well. Lemons, which have a low – or acidic – pH, were the most effective.

For his experiment, Wyatt Whitlinger tapped some sugar maple trees at Claremont and collected sap. The raw sap didn’t taste sweet, but that changed when he boiled it down. His brother, Lyle Whitlinger, hypothesized that the Maglev train (which has a magnet on the bottom) would travel farther because there would be less friction. He proved his hypothesis through his experiment.

Musicians Jayla Klainbard and Jared Lorenz wondered if they could do anything to make the reeds in their woodwind instruments taste any better. They dipped them in various substances, including almond extract, vanilla, blueberry tea and MiO flavoring for water. They concluded that the MiO makes the reeds taste the best and didn’t seem to change the sound on their instruments, although they hadn’t spoken to their music teacher about it yet.

“They taste really good, so we don’t mind,” Jared said. “Without it, the reeds taste terrible.