Science Fair
Fri, 2015-02-27 05:00
News Staff
Lip Balm seals a first place win in CCISD science fair.
By PAMELA GRANT
65 Copperas Cove High School students competed in the annual CCHS Science Fair. Of those, only four won trophies and will be moving on to compete in the District Science Fair competition this May. Students were able to compete either individually, in pairs or in groups of three. Eight judges scored the project based on organization, creativity, science content and literacy, and level of difficulty of understanding. Instructional coach Gina Zook was in charge of this year’s Science Fair. She said that it takes students an average of one month to complete their projects. A few take only a few weeks, but others might take several months. “I look for students that take the time to investigate a concept, especially if it’s original. You can google a lot of projects, so I look for originality and a solid science background. And of course the appearance…it needs to look like they took time,” said Zook. “I’m very pleased with the number of participants we had and I’m very thankful for our judges.” Out of 65 projects, Aleia Wardlow came in first place for the whole school with her project she titled “Keep Calm and Love Lip Balm.” She tested the base ingredients of several brands of lip balms to include beeswax, petroleum jelly and various oils. She found out that beeswax is the best base ingredient and that ChapStick was the best brand. She also found out that olive oil, mineral oil and coconut oil molded during the experiment. She experimented for two weeks and took approximately one month to complete her project. “I’m a band kid and I play brass instruments, so the constant application of hydration to your lips is key,” said Wardlow about her inspiration for her project. “Also, I found out that in 2012, $97.1 million dollars was spent on lip balm all over America.” Wardlow is nervous about competing in district because she will be competing against her sister. She also said that as people mature, they have different interpretations of science, so she thinks it might be tough. Elementary through high school students will compete in the district competition. The high school students will compete against the junior high school students. Elementary students will be in their own category. “It’s so refreshing…It makes me believe in the future of our generation,” said Andre Milteer, an English inclusion teacher for seniors, as he looked at all the projects. “I’m impressed with the depth of the research. I’m impressed with the attention to detail with how the students correlated their research to either prove or disprove their hypothesis…What I see here is time and effort. There’s no laziness here.” Ariel McIntire won 2nd place with her project studying which types of insulation are best at maintaining heat. Kayla Wilson and her partner Marissa Thomas won 3rd place with their project which studied which household absorbent would absorb the most oil in an oil spill. Joanna LeGare won 4th place with her project which worked to prove the importance of protein denaturation in daily life Other types of projects included studies on lung capacity, illusion, the probability of picking ‘c’ on a test, and the effect of cell phones on reaction time.