Portola Magnet Middle School Science Fair
SPG members recently volunteered as judges for the Portola magnet Middle School Science Fair for the second year! This annual outreach opportunity is a rewarding way to encourage the next generation of scientists. See some of the projects presented by the Portola middle schoolers below:
-
The purpose of this experiment is to figure out what earthquake resistant building design can better save a building in the case of an earthquake. The question being answered in this study is, “What is the best earthquake-resistant building design?” The hypothesis tested in this study is If an earthquake occurs, then a building with an isolated base, such as rubber, would work better than any other earthquake resistant building design. For the experiment, several buildings were shaken with different earthquake resistant designs on a movable platform and were measured on how long a building lasted before it fell and how far it moved on the platform. The different designs were rubber isolation, a weight, and a creative, hexagonal prism. The results showed that the hexagonal prism design worked better than the others overall, as it lasted longer and moved less. The hypothesis was not supported by the results above, and was, therefore, proven false.
-
Beaches around the world are polluted with microplastics, macroplastics, cigarettes and millions of other wastes. Although both large and small groups and organizations are working to help solve this problem, oftentimes smaller, less seemingly important wastes are overlooked in the process. A large reason for this is that smaller wastes such as microplastics are more difficult to collect than larger wastes. Due to this, I made a device to aid in the collection of smaller wastes such as broken down plastics and cigarettes. The steps involved in this included preparing and designing the different parts of the device, such as the can, metal and plastic structures, then constructing the rubber band and rope mechanisms to make the can structure spin. The results that were attained shows that after each trial of inserting a mixture of sand and trash into the device, an average of 1.4% of the sand and 100% of the trash remained in the device, displaying ideal results. However, only an average of 168 grams of sand could be held by the device per trial. Overall, the device successfully serves the intended purpose, but has many flaws and can be improved in many ways.
“We were amazed with the creativity and critical thinking skills of the 7th and 8th graders who participated. Their scientific thinking skills and their ability to apply them in their projects was impressive! Overall, it was a rewarding experience to witness the budding scientific talent of these young students.”
