Glue sticks, poster board and moldy French fries Glue sticks, poster board and moldy French fries (February 04, 2005)

Students display their home-grown, creative science experiments low-tech

by Alexandria Rocha

After watching last year's greasiest documentary, "Super Size Me," sixth-grader Zachery Stanton-Sabitz got to thinking.

Much to his mom's relief, he didn't decide to gorge McDonald's cuisine for a month. He did, however, want to incorporate some of the film's concepts into his science project. On Wednesday, the crowd at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School's third-annual science fair smelled the end results.

The 11-year-old's project displayed more than a dozen tubs of molding French fries and Tator Tots, representing every fast food joint from Palo Alto to Redwood City.

"In the movie, the French fries didn't deteriorate at all after three months. I disproved that," he said smiling, all braces and dimples.

Stanton-Sabitz was just one student who took part in this year's annual JLS science fair earlier this week. The event attracted more than 100 student scientists, a horde of parents and teachers and a handful of community members acting as "judges."

With computer programs like PowerPoint fast replacing traditional cardboard displays as the desired science project medium, especially on the East Coast, it was almost refreshing to see Palo Alto's middle schoolers sticking to the basics.

Tables in the JLS cafeteria were crowded with dozens of tall display boards, folded into three sections and creatively designed with colored markers and construction paper cut outs. It was clear the glue stick was king.

Projects ranged from "Which popcorn tastes best?" to "Do bubbles last longer in warm or cold temperatures?" to "Does eating fresh fruit protect against breast cancer?" With each project, students were required to include a purpose, hypothesis, procedure, results and conclusion, as well as a box for who helped.

Unlike many science fairs, the annual event at JLS is not a competition. There are no winners and no prizes. The goal, however, is two-fold.

"For one, we want to make sure the children understand the scientific process," said Rajiv Dholakia, a parent volunteer in his third and final year running the fair. "The bigger goal for us, is to help children view science as a fun activity and one they shouldn't be afraid of."

Many students drew from their own hobbies and interests to create their projects, such as in Saira Chawla and Ruhi Nath's "Electric hairbrush."

"I wanted to do something girly, like lipglossy or hairbrushy, so I thought this would be cool," said Chawla, 12.

Standing in a crowded aisle, with her peers looking on, Chawla brushed her long hair rapidly to demonstrate the experiment. She then placed the brush near a paper star which started to turn on its perch indicating static electricity.

"It goes around three times!" chimed in Nath.

Each student had the chance to talk with two "judges," many who are parents and community members with interests in science and volunteering. Rather than giving scores, the judges chat with the students about their projects and then make suggestions for how to enhance their experiments.

"You look at their projects optimistically. A useful experiment will help explain something to other students," said Clinton Lewis, a teacher of solar system astronomy at West Valley College.

Lewis has been a volunteer judge at the JLS science fair for three years. His approach with each student is gentle and encouraging. He usually ends by giving the students ideas for questions to ask their teacher.

Since the JLS fair is not competitive, Dholakia provides information on various contest events around the Bay Area. Last year, two students from JLS -- Dholakia's daughter, Meghna, and Curtis Tsai -- went on to the Synopsis Santa Clara Valley Science Fair.

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