Some IMS students have been working very hard on their science projects for the upcoming SETS science fair. It will take place on Friday, May 29th at Colonia High School.
Schools all over the district participate in this science fair every year. At IMS there is a class called Stem Independent Research. In this class, students spend almost the entire marking period on this one assignment.
Sai Sharan Nendranbakam, a student at IMS, did a project about using fruits and vegetables to create energy. He and his partner called this project Veggie Voltage. They used alligator clips attached to copper and zinc that were inserted into the fruits. This allowed them to measure voltage.
It was difficult for them to complete this project due to faulty and low quality equipment. They had to re-do many parts of their projects because they were not experienced enough in using multimeters. They think they could have done much better had they done more research on the equipment instead of the science.
“If any future kids are reading this make sure you pick the topic that you want to pick, not anything else. And also be creative with it, don’t reuse the same project, and have fun,” Nendranbakam said.
Shaurya Choudhary is another student participating in this project. His project is about the fact that almost every beehive in the continent has a Varroa mite infestation. These mites are dangerous to colonies and can deform bees and decrease population.
“I chose my topic because my grandfather was a farmer, and when I went [to India] last time I noticed that he kept on being stressed about his bees. Which got me curious on what was affecting it,” Choudhary said.
He had trouble finding good ways to do experiments as he did not have direct access to any beehives. He ended up calling local farms and his grandfather because he knew that they had plenty of data that he could use.
Edson Meronvil and Sashwin Loganathan have their own project together as well. Their project is about the importance of eating breakfast every day. In order to grow, kids need sleep and nutrients. Their hypothesis was that breakfast would play a major role in growth.
They found that overall, the science fair project has been fun to work on. But they had some major challenges in their experiments. They were worried about whether or not the people they had asked to eat or not eat breakfast would actually follow the instructions.
“The challenges just made us work harder, so we had to actually put in more effort to achieve what we needed to,” Loganathan said.
