Parker Middle School students present scientific experiments

Parker Middle School students participated in the annual science fair, demonstrating their knowledge of science.  Students in grades 6-8 presented their projects and explained to visiting parents, teachers, students and friends their hypothesis, prediction and outcome of the issue they investigated.  Twenty exhibits were selected for display at the W. M. Keck Observatory where volunteer judges selected 6 projects to advance to the Hilo district science fair in February.  Parker School representatives will be Kelly Kennedy in the 6th grade, Blake Aholele, Michael Note, and Davy Ragland in the 7th grade and 8th graders Carra Bowes, and Grant Nair.    

The science fair projects investigated a variety of issues from the following disciplines; chemistry, physics, engineering, botany, psychology and zoology.

Experiments in the final round presented at Keck explored interesting concepts and questions including: Whose tongue has more bacteria, a human's or a dog's? Power bike, is it possible to produce enough DC electricity to power a Playstation 2? Do copper, sawdust, and eggshells deter snails? Veggie power, what vegetable has the most energy in it? To distill or not distill? Extracting onion DNA. Does eye color affect peripheral vision? Wood burning, which type of wood gives the most heat? Test your taste buds. Magnets and eddy currents. Fins and rockets. Water filtering, which material sand, rocks or wood chips will filter water the best? Green machine, does the color of light shining on a plant change its growing pattern? Will Auqafresh, Colgate, or Crest show the most whitening? Solar rays, skin assassin, which SPF 8, 15, 30, or 50 will block most of the sun's rays? Depth perception, which would be better the eyes closer or further apart? Manta Ray feeding, can you make an artificial feeding situation for Manta Rays using lights?

Science chair Patricia Kassis remarked "We had our best group of experiments ever.  I was impressed by how well thought-out and well executed the projects were, and by the enthusiasm and professionalism the students demonstrated when they explained their projects".  For more information on Parker School please visit www.parkerschool.net.

Michael Note's project on Magnets and eddy currents

Davy Ragland's project Depth Perception