Great minds at science fair

Masked girl stands in front of a poster board with photos and text about oil spills

Conceivable Curies, potential Paulings and the next generation of Neil deGrasse Tysons at Hackett Middle School showed off their skills to a team of judges Wednesday at the school Science Fair.

The 26 projects by students in grades 6-8 ranged across the sciences. Each school science class selected its best science fair experiment, which advanced to the schoolwide science fair.

Topics included everything from the electrical conductivity of fruit and vegetables to bacteria in cloth vs. surgical face masks to the best way to clean up an oil spill.

Hackett judges chose five projects to compete in the citywide Joseph Henry Science Fair, which will be held virtually this year due to COVID-19 concerns. The top projects and their authors, in alphabetical order by the name of the experiment, are:

“Crystal Garden,” by sixth graders Loreina Corniel and Jolie Benjamin;

“Formulating Polymer Bouncy Balls for Ideal Elasticity,” by eighth grader Anya Miller;

“#Germs,” by seventh graders Nya Almodovar, Elianna Belfort, Julia Seniw and Shairene Valenzuela;

“How the Cookie Crumbles,” by seventh grader Lucy Rathke-Cook; and

 “Why do different chemicals change the color of fire?” by sixth grader Abigail Dalland.

Congratulations to all our science-minded students who did science fair projects this year!