The gym at Cortez Middle School on Thursday Jan. 15 was brimming with over 250 students, as the annual Science Fair was in full swing.
Student projects dotting the floor ranged from fun: “Does hair color affect intelligence?” to the environmentally conscious “How to improve farming in poor soil conditions?”
The fair’s categories included chemistry, Behavioral and social science, earth and space, energy and transportation, engineering, health, microbiology and plant science.
Danny Cumpanizano, a seventh-grader, said his project was generated from his interest in music and video games.
His project studied 16 subjects that listened to rap music and classical music while playing Call of Duty on XBox. Subjects that listened to rap music played much better than those who listened to classical, he said.
Haley Carr, a seventh- grader, tackled the question, “Who’s mouth is dirtier? A dog, a cat or a smoker?”
She found that the dog’s mouth had the most amount of bacteria.
“I though for sure it would be the smoker,” said Carr.
Tristen York, a CMS seventh-grader wanted to tackle something more complex this year, and ended up with a project that showed how soundwaves affect flames. With a Rubin’s Tube, a propane tank and a frequency generator, to control the flame level via frequencies.
“It was so cool to build it and see that it actually worked,” said York.
Coordinator and M-CHS science teacher Gary Livick explained that this year there were more engineering projects than usual and many students were inspired by watching the Google Science Fair online.
“A lot make projects to try and help make the world a better place,” he said.
About 25 volunteer judges had the tough job of reviewing the projects and scoring them.
Leigh Waggoner, a Cortez resident and volunteer judge, said she participated in science fair in her school days, and was amazed at how the projects have evolved over the years.
“A lot of these are very well thought-out and sophisticated. They’ve come a long way from our Lima Bean growth science fair projects,” she said with a laugh.