Middle school scientists show fair projects

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom SOMETHING’S FISHY — SeDoMoCha Middle School eighth-graders Alexis London, left, and Heather Burgess had their aquarium of guppies on display during the annual science fair on the evening of May 21 at the Dover-Foxcroft school. London and Burgess found that the fish preferred the pink side of the tank, which more closely resembled the vibrant colors of the species’ home in tropical climates.

Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — For the last several months, SeDoMoCha Middle School seventh- and eighth-graders have been busy developing projects, either alone or in pairs, for the annual science fair. On the evening of May 21 the students presented their findings to the public with science fair projects on display in the cafeteria and adjacent multipurpose room.

Seventh-graders Cheyanne Skomars and Sadie Avellar chose to study the effects of a full moon on people. “What we found in doing the experiment is the moon does affect people,” Skomars said in confirming their basic hypothesis. She said emergency rooms are busier during this lunar cycle.

“It affects us because we are mostly water,” Skomars added.

Seventh-graders Liv Wesley and Karis Dankert invited those looking at their exhibit to try their hand at free throw shooting. “What we did for our experiment is to see if you remove the nets does your shooting percentage go up or down?,” Wesley said.

The two had one rim with netting and the other without netting to replicate the conditions for their experiment subject. Wesley and Dankert’s data revealed that the results were nearly identical, with 83 percent of shots on the rim without a net being made, compared to 82 percent with the net.

“We did guppies to see if they like the blue side or the pink side more,” Heather Burgess said about how she and fellow eighth-grader Alexis London decorated an aquarium, which was on display for the public to see, in their experiment “Determining Habitat Preference of Guppies by Manipulating Color Density.”

“Guppies are from the tropics so they like the more vibrant colors, it makes them feel like they are at home,” Burgess said. The guppies ended up spending more time on the left or pink side of the tank, compared to the blue right portion.

Seventh-graders Gracie Sage and Mickena Gibbs also used an animal in their experiment, Sage’s horse Tiny. The two did not have Tiny with them in the cafeteria, but had footage of their experiment to see what treat Tiny preferred to eat the most.

In their videos Sage and Gibbs held out an apple and a carrot for Tiny to choose from. In four trials the horse opted for the apple twice and for the carrot the other two times. “She bit me but the horse went to the carrot,” Gibbs said about one of the trials.

Grade 8 student Hunter Watt opted to see if he could summon another species through sound. “I did a testing of turkey calls to see which one would bring in turkeys better,” he said. Watt tried a diaphragm call, push pin call and electronic call and determined that the diaphragm call worked the best as the birds came to him in the shortest amount of time.

“I did my project on acid rain, it was a research-based project,” eighth-grader Jacob Marsh said. He said acid rain can also fall in the form of snow and sleet, and can cause respiratory problems in humans while also “making the soil more acidic than it should be,” Marsh said, with nutrients pulled out of the ground and some soil even being changed into aluminum.

Marsh’s research indicated acidic rain is worse in the northeastern portion of the U.S. When asked about how the problem may be solved Marsh said, “Finding a better way to burn fossil fuels, it all comes down to the fossil fuels.”

Eighth-grader Matt Spooner invited those looking at his experiment to try their hand at pitching, with a radar gun set up to record the velocity of baseballs thrown safely into a net positioned  in the corner of the multipurpose room.

“I was on the baseball team and my dad’s the coach so I took advantage of that,” Spooner said. The aim of Spooner’s project was to determine which specific drills increased or decreased the speed and accuracy of pitches.

“I split the team into four groups, three I gave the drills to and the last one was my control group,” he said. After his teammates went through the various drills, or not, Spooner had the players throw with the radar gun being used to capture the data.

As the students all exhibited their projects for the public, a panel of judges walked around and those in attendance could submit their selections for the People’s Choice Award. At the conclusion of the science fair grade 7 science teacher Mary Povak and eighth-grade teacher Lindsay Noyes announced the winners.

People’s Choice honorees were Caleb Crocker and Brandon Cookson in grade 7 and Jonathan Feix and Dustin Simmons in grade 8, with honorable mention going to Kelly Watt and Julia Brasslett in grades 7 and 8 respectively.

The top three project winners were swept by eighth-graders with first place going to Calin Seavey and Mariah Poulin, second place being awarded to Ashley Robinson and Jared Atkinson and third place honors earned by Becky Fishburn-Batey.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

FASTEST LONGBOARD  — For his experiment, SeDoMoCha Middle School eighth-grader Tim Mazzeo measured the speed of four different types of longboards, using a clip-on speedometer going downhill in Willimantic. Mazzeo’s highest reading was 56.7 mph. “It’s what I love to do, so I did my experiment on it,” he said, mentioning he has been longboarding for about a year and a half.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

HOOF IMPROVEMENT  — Seventh-graders Abbie Tetreault, left, and MacKenzie Harmon had the science fair exhibit “Hoof Improvement.”