By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
While the Crawford County Fair is still five months away, that doesn’t mean a fair can’t still be had. For Bucyrus students their annual science fair took place Wednesday evening.
Poster boards detailing the students’ work lined the Bucyrus Middle School gymnasium, awaiting judging of the projects to commence at 6 p.m., and hopes from the students to receive a “Superior” rating on their project and presentation.
Seventh-grader Katie Kuhn’s science fair project dealt with plants and humidity. Kuhn spoke about the experiment that she undertook for her project.
“I found that the humidity had decreased from plants to no plants by 32 percent, and the temperature actually increased from plants to no plants,” Kuhn said.
Tenth-grader Jadyn Coleman spoke about her science fair project.
“My project was to see what element makes cookies rise the most out of baking soda, baking powder, and cornstarch. I found that using the baking soda caused the cookies to rise faster, while cornstarch didn’t rise at all,” Coleman said.
Seventh grade student Karys Boyd did her project on bacteria comparisons from the floor of a school and school desks. Boyd discussed what her experiment results revealed.
“I found that the floor actually had more bacteria. The Petri dish was completely saturated, and the desk wasn’t really that bad, which was relieving because I put my head down all the time,” Boyd said.
While Boyd did her experiment with bacteria, classmate Kelsey Fackler did her project on music and whether major or minor keys have an effect on the mood.
“I found out that major key lightens the mood, and makes you more happy than minor (keys) like when I first did the experiment my subjects were upset when I played the minor, and when I played the major keys they got happier,” Fackler said.
From blue notes to blue cellophane, Natalie Spitler’s project dealt with light filtration on growing plants. Spitler spoke about what she found in her experiment.
“I found that the clear cellophane made the plants grow the tallest, while the blue cellophane did not make them grow at all, they completely failed,” Spitler said.
Eighth grade science teacher Ellen Haldeman took part in her first science fair at Bucyrus as a teacher. Haldeman reflected on the experience so far.
“It has been very overwhelming to undertake, but thankfully everyone I have worked with have been organized, so they have been able to help me get on track, and the kids have been really great working with me. I will ask them tomorrow how it went,” Haldeman said.
Prior to the science fair taking place, an open house was held from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. for parents and friends to view the students’ work.