St. Charles Borromeo students get scientific

For this year’s science fair, students performed experiments in a variety of areas, including, chemistry, plant and animal sciences, microbiology, health sciences, behavioral and social sciences, engineering, energy and computer science.

Katie Boyd, an eighth–grade student at St. Charles Borromeo School, stands with her display which explains the science project she did for the school Science Fair in Port Charlotte. Her project, “Do texters make terrific typists?,” explored whether students who send text messages make good typists.

BOB REDDY | FC
Katie Boyd, an eighth–grade student at St. Charles Borromeo School, stands with her display which explains the science project she did for the school Science Fair in Port Charlotte. Her project, “Do texters make terrific typists?,” explored whether students who send text messages make good typists.

BOB REDDY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC VENICE BUREAU EDITOR

Posted: 10.27.09

PORT CHARLOTTE | Each year St. Charles Borromeo School science teacher John Verner is impressed with the effort and creativity that goes into the science projects his students create.

Fifth-grade students doing a science experiment for the first time usually work with something simple or practical, such as learning which type of bones dogs like best or how soil affects plant growth, or learning about the density of oil and water and even learning the effect of storage on how much microwave popcorn pops.

“They can be very creative and very interesting as first-time scientists,” Verner said. “By the time they get to the later grades, the students really get into the projects and put more thought into what they are going to do.”

For this year’s science fair in mid-October, students performed experiments in a variety of areas, including, chemistry, plant sciences, animal sciences, microbiology, medicine and health sciences, behavioral and social sciences, engineering, energy and computer science. All of the projects were put on display and then judged based a point system using 25 criteria, including originality, challenging the student, observational research and experimental methods. With the ability to learn about other science projects on the Internet, Verner requires extensive documentation for the projects. The top 10 projects will compete in a regional science fair in Fort Myers.

Katie Boyd decided to learn if repeated text-messaging on a cell phone makes a person a terrific typist.

“It was something my mom and I talk about a lot, so I decided to test it out,” Katie said Oct. 21. She enlisted the help of classmates and timed each person as they typed out and texted the same sentence using capitalization and punctuation and without abbreviations for any word. “My mom was right; it doesn’t help typing at all.”

Joey Barcomb did an experiment asking the question: Do different brands of gas make a difference in gas mileage?

Joey used his mother’s daily commute to work to determine the gas mileage from gasoline at eight gas stations. He was surprised to learn that some of the most recognizable brands did worse than others and there was a 4 mile-per-gallon difference between the best and worst brands.

“I had a lot of help from my mom, but it was very interesting to go through this process, since they are all supposed to be the same and some better, but that is not the case,” he said.

Katharina Jung did her experiment about DNA fingerprints and what makes them unique because she wants to be a forensic pathologist or veterinarian. She said she is fascinated by science and wanted to learn about her career choice.

“This was very exciting to do,” Katharina said. “I learned so much about how unique we are and how one little change in our DNA can change who we are.”

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