Featuring everything from ant farms to dehydrated fruit to nose-picking experiments, Coe Elementary School's science fair took over three floors of the school last Thursday evening.
Students from kindergarten through fifth grade presented their projects to parents, staff and the community. Their creativity and curiosity were in every project.
"It's great to see a wide range of experiments," said Mike Harrington, PTA Math and Science chair. "You see a lot of stuff coming from a different angle than you would normally think of it."
Each student got to pursue his or her own interests, which made for a wide variety of projects.
Eight-year-old Fletcher Anderson built and customized his own electric guitar. He has been taking guitar lessons for three years and started his own band. "A lot of players have a different sound because they make their own guitars," Fletcher said, which is what prompted him to build his own instrument.
The construction of the guitar included stringing the strings, coiling them around the volume and tone controls and making sure everything hooked up to the output so it played through the amp. To customize his guitar, Anderson painted a design on the back of the neck of the guitar and his band's name, Charms, on the headstock.
Jasper Coté and Frances Foody made humdingers in Elsie Miller's fifth-grade class. Their teacher showed them a box that had a string. When you pulled the string it made a humming sound and then dinged a bell. She wanted them to replicate this. The students were given materials such as paper clips, a bell, a motor, clothes pins, battery, tape, string and a board to construct their humdingers.
Harrington said there were about 150 participants this year, which he thinks is an excellent turnout. Most were from the upper grades.
"More people from the community should go to the science fair," said parent Royal Emery. "It's an opportunity to engage with the kids on their level."[[In-content Ad]]
