HOULTON, Maine — The sciences are alive and well at Greater Houlton Christian Academy as evidenced by the work of students in grades 7-10 in the school’s annual science fair held Tuesday, April 11.
Students were divided into two groups — grades 7-8 and grades 9-10 — for the purpose of judging exhibits at the science fair.
“The students at GHCA have been working diligently over the past several months researching, testing, and analyzing data in preparation for science fair,” said Dan Angotti, high school science teacher at the academy. “The students presented their findings to parents and members of the community this past Tuesday evening in the school gymnasium.”
In the junior high division, winners were: 1, Mark Freier; 2, Dale Freier III; and 3, Jessica Quint. Winners in the high school division were: 1, Kathryn Nightingale; 2, Kelsey Sewell; and 3,.
The students’ projects featured a wide variety of scientific studies, with hypotheses and conclusions.
Kelsey Sewell explains her project, “How color affects memory” at the Greater Houlton Christian Academy science fair Tuesday, April 11.
(Joseph Cyr)
Sewell did her project on how colors affect memory. “I was having a really hard time memorizing something on a study guide for a test,” she explained. “I read an article online about how color affects memory, so I thought it would really cool to explore this for the science fair.”
Her study involved quizzing her peers using flashcards with images on different colors. Surprisingly, the color that was the most effective in memory was white, Sewell said.
GHCA student Cole Winslow demonstrates his project for the school science fair of how the size of various pieces of candy affect mass flow.
(Joseph Cyr)
Cole Winslow did his project on how different sized candy relates to mass-flow rate, which measures how the mass of a substance passes through an object per unit of time. “My conclusion was that the size of the candy does affect mass-flow rates,” Winslow said. “The smaller the object, the higher the flow rate.”
Judges for the event were Matthew Blackford, Ben Bell, Allison Little, Matthew Lincoln, Paul Jacques, Amy Witmer, Katie Duff, Mark Lunn and Cynthia Thompson.
