Congratulations to our 6th and 7th grade teams for meeting all requirements for state prizes in the NY State eCYBERMISSION Competition.
6th grade teams
1st Place: Preserving Cucumbers: D.K., L.I., A.P.
In our investigation, we are looking for ways to better preserve cucumbers for a longer period of time. We were testing 5 different liquids: liquid nitrogen, saltwater, soapy water, vinegar, and water with baking soda dissolved in it. We wanted to figure out how these liquids will preserve a cucumber.
One of our conclusions is don't use liquid nitrogen to preserve things, it will just freeze them solid.
2nd Place: Hunt for Bacteria: A.O., O.O, A.M.
We were investigating what surfaces collect most germs before and after cleaning with hand sanitizer with 70% Alcohol? We think that the computer and the keyboard will have the most bacteria since everyone touches it. We also think the door knob will collect a lot of bacteria since everyone touches it when coming in and out of the room. This is why we think the keyboard, and knob will collect the most bacteria. We think that there will still be bacteria for the clean things because hand sanitizer doesn't clean all the bacteria. Also, we left it for about 10 minutes and then swabbed it again. In that ten minutes bacteria could have grown on it again.
In our experiment we wanted to test if after wiping surfaces with disinfectant, will it show bacteria on the surface after 10 minutes passes? The idea was to see if even after disinfecting, 10 minutes later we might or might not have bacteria on the surface.We used petri dishes, cotton swabs, timers, hand sanitizer (70% alcohol) in our experiment. The results show some surfaces are so dirty, that even after cleaning it with 70% alcohol, it showed bacteria present after 10 minutes. Our experiment can help our society to understand that it is not always 100% clean after you disinfect the surface. We need to be aware of the fact that thorough cleaning must be applied in order to eliminate bacteria. People might think it is enough to just apply hand sanitizer to a surface. This research is suggesting that while using hand sanitizers, we should also consider the action of applying that hand sanitizer on your hand. This is how we used STEM.
Honorable Mention: LED – plants S.Y, E.Y., E.I., E.Y.
Plants carry out photosynthesis using light. We were wondering if we can grow plants in our kitchen at home. The most efficient light bulbs are LED - light-emitting diodes. We were investigating which light bulb is better for growing plants indoors. We were testing three types of LED light bulbs: 9 Watts, 12 Watts, and 14 Watts.
7th grade team
Honorable Mention: J.O, A.M, D.O.
We were investigating what causes popcorn to pop and why do some kernels not pop?
The conclusions based on our experiment is that the water found inside of the kernel helps the popcorn pop. The popcorn kernels will have a hard time popping, and some of the kernels will not pop, but if you wait a long time, some kernels will start to pop. Our hypothesis was partly correct. We thought that the dry kernels would not pop. This is partially true. Some popcorn kernels popped but it took a long time. Some kernels did not pop.