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Community
Service |
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Science Fair Judging at Harris Bilingual
Elementary School
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DATE/TIME
Friday, April 2, 2004 (8:30pm to 1:00pm)
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PLACE
Harris Bilingual (English/Spanish)
Elementary School (Fort Collins, CO)
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DESCRIPTION
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Your friendly IEEE SSCS officers (Don McGrath,
Alvin Loke, Tin Tin Wee, and Bob Barnes) served as Science Fair Judges at
a local Fort Collins elementary school. We were hosted by Mrs.
Isabel Chavez-McBeth. After a hearty breakfast provided by Mrs.
Chavez-McBeth, we and a CSU graduate student participated in the judging of 89 projects to decide on
the top three projects that would go on to compete at a state-wide
level.
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We were thoroughly impressed with children's
abilities to apply the scientific method to investigate everyday
curiosities, even for kids as young as 3rd graders. In fact, First Place was
awarded to a 3rd grader (Zach Suazo) who did a project on "Chemiluminescense"
and was trying to understand how to make glow sticks last longer. He
learned that chemiluminescence was an activated process and that keeping
the glow sticks at cold temperatures had a profound impact on glow
duration. Second Place was a project called "Cool Cats" by
a 5th grader who was trying to explain why on a sunny day, her white cat
would comfortably sit on the outdoor patio a lot longer than her black
cat. She unknowingly conducted an experiment on blackbody radiation
and emissitivity, and correlated radiative absorption vs. color.
Third Place was a project called "What A Drag!" by another 5th
grader who was investigating factors that impacted aerodynamic drag.
Other notable projects included an investigation on fingerprint patterns
vs. heredity. A pair of 3rd graders also conducted an experiment in
an attempt to understand why small marshmallows seem to drift to the
circumference of a cup when floating in hot chocolate, hypothesizing that
thermal gradients were responsible for the phenomenon.
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We encourage you to participate in
future community events. You'll be contributing back to the
community, and it's fun and rewarding!!! Please visit the Poudre
School District site for more information on volunteering. Thanks Mrs. Chavez-McBeth
for giving us this opportunity.
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PHOTOS Courtesy
of Bob Barnes
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