STANFORD — An annual tradition at Stanford Schools, is a Science Fair, giving students the opportunity to experiment with a core subject.
“Well, it's been a tradition at this school for I don't even know how long, but we do it every year in the spring. And the idea is for the kids to do some research and projects on their own and build a better understanding of how science works,” explained Tom Murphy, a science teacher for Stanford Schools.
Out-of-the-box thinking and a strong hypothesis are the recipes for a top-notch science experiment.
Sophomore, Eliza Tureck, created a Thomas Edison-inspired home phonograph out of scrap parts from her home.
“He made it in 1877, and he made it to record telegraph messages, which is like Morse code.”
Used to transmit messages a long distance, Tureck used tin foil as a conductor for sound which a needle creates grooves to then playback a message.
“Testing, one, two, three…”
That’s what Tureck played back in her presentation to judges.
“Once Edison had made this, he started to use wax because it was able to last longer and be able to. Once you replayed it, you can play it multiple times. This one I've used multiple times today because I present it to multiple people. The etching is basically a straight line. Now, you're not going to be able to hear what I say.”
All we heard was a sound like one that hits a vinyl record on a turntable. That doesn’t take away from the innovation.
“All of it was scrap. That just shows that you can build something cool even if you don't want to go out and buy something and that you can learn so much from it.”
On the other side of the room, a pair of cousins, Mia and Emma Smith did research on Lick Creek Caves were formed.
Their hypothesis was based on humidity. The two were proven wrong.
“We found out that we were actually wrong about our hypothesis, actually formed by water, water, and the acidity of water,” Mia explained.
Mia is no stranger to the regional science fair and the two worked together on a project in their last showing. The cousins found they have docked points on presentations where each presenter did not share equal speaking roles.
If they were to present again the two would make some changes.
“Probably talk more about our temperature and humidity and how what different types of rocks, there were would probably be it.”
The Great Falls College MSU Regional Science and Engineering Fair will be held for middle and high school students on March 9th, while the elementary division will be on March 7th.
Registration costs $10 for the upper division and $5 for the elementary.
Two top high school contestants will go on to compete at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Dallas, May 13-19. The top 10% of finishers in the middle school fair will be nominated to advance to the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. The register your student, visit http://www.gfcmsu.edu/sciencefair/. Registration is open until Friday, March 3, 2023.
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