Science projects of eleven students at The Summit Country Day School’s Middle School have qualified for Ohio’s Academy of Science annual State Science Day.
All 19 Summit Country Day School Middle School students who participated in the Southwest Ohio Ohio Science and Engineering Expo science competition placed in the two highest levels – excellent or superior. Projects that were rated superior, a score of 36 or higher, are eligible to compete at the state level.
State qualifiers are Huck Bortz, Indian Hill, whose project was titled “Which Whitening Toothpaste Concoction Works Best”; Beckett Brinkman, Amberley Village, “Does the Relative Humidity Affect the Number of Homeruns Hit in a Major League Baseball Stadium?”; Will Fox, Indian Hill, “How Does the Charge Time Affect the Run Time of a Hoverboard?”; Miles Friedman, Hyde Park, “Does a Ball's Density Affect Its Vertical Path when Dropped?”;
Kyan Gatewood, Anderson Township, “What Additive Best Preserves a Cut Flower in a Vase for the Longest amount of Time?”; Tyler Gier, Sycamore Township, “Does the Size of the Straw Structure Affect If the Egg Breaks Or Not When Dropped from a Set Height?”; Vivian Gibbs, Hyde Park, “How Does the Type of Flour Affect how Quickly Sourdough Starter Becomes Active?”;
Ben Hofmann, Anderson Township, “Which Vegetables/Fruits Have more Starch and Ascorbic Acid Based on their Reaction with Iodine?”; Baer Huttenbauer, Hyde Park, “Does the Variety of Grass Affect how long it Stays Green?”; Abigail Kroner, Hyde Park, “What Foods Release the Most Energy when Burned?” and John Trokan, Greenhills, “How Does Temperature Affect Black Swallowtails' Emergence?”.
Students whose projects were rated excellent included Christian Basler, Norwood; Liam Buckius, Hyde Park; Griffin Charville, Morrow; Kiersten Diaz, Anderson Township; Iggy Dwyer, Milford; Caroline Gehring, Hyde Park; Jordan Roebel, Mason and Anna Wiltshire, Covedale.
At The Summit, the science project is a capstone for fifth graders associated with the school’s signature Character Education Program. In the program, fifth graders are assigned the character trait “courage” and teachers have included recognition of courage throughout the curriculum and throughout the year.
All fifth graders completed a capstone project which included writing papers and speeches, creating display boards, recording their speeches, creating QR codes to link to their videos so visitors could see the board and their speeches at the same time. Students presented to each other at the school’s science fair which was not open to the public because of pandemic safety protocols.
Lower and Middle School Director Mike Johnson praised his fifth-grade teaching team led by science teacher Heather Cole for supporting the students through the capstone process. “Amidst a pandemic and countless protocols in a year without normalcy, teachers pulled off a science fair through which our students practiced courage and experienced success,” he said.
The Southwest Ohio science fair is traditionally held in person at the University of Cincinnati but was held virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Students were awarded up to 10 points in four different areas – originality, oral, written and visual communication, experimental design and depth of understanding – for a total of up to 40 points. The state science fair will also be virtual this year.
This year’s state finalists follow in the shoes of current sixth grader Faye Edmondson, Hyde Park, who represented Summit at state competition last year.
See photos of the state-qualifying students with their capstone projects here.