Santa Cruz County Science Fair - 2007

For the second year, I volunteered as a judge and this time it was in the "Space Science" division. Jay Friedland was also there as a judge (Environmental Science), and his good friend Martin Levy (lead person for our Space Science team - him and me!). I thoroughly enjoyed talking with the young scientists and spent all day looking, judging, writing up encouraging comments to scotch tape to the boards, and photographing at the post-session with parents and students. Jamie Ferrell had an outstanding project once again, about impacts and craters on the moon. Check back as time goes on, and I'll have some photo's posted here. The awards show is in a week, so I am sworn to secrecy about the winners at this time!

Natalie's stirling engine demonstrated how heat differences can be used to drive an engine

Ally and Adrianna compared methods of doing injections. A project not for the squeamish, but well done.

Ella's towering project studied bacteria growth in various beach sands - impressively informed with lots of graphs

I learned something really useful from this project - buy the concrete with the BIG chunks, not the little ones.

This pair tested volunteers for their ability to detect subtle flavors. I took their test.... and failed, alas. (well, I do love cooking just the same)

Helena and friends tested various oil and gas treatments in pursuit of higher gas mileage.

 

Shamik used modern organic chemistry techniques to identify different anti-oxidents in green tea

Emma spent long cold all nighter's at UCSC's rooftop observatory determing extinction curves - an astronomy project!

Natalie's project tested various ways to reduce E. Coli and coliform bacteria from water. An excellent project with great poster presentation organization

Jamie Ferrell (on right) did an amazing project photographing, measuring and then correlating the diameter vs. wall height for a sample of lunar craters. She took 2nd Place among all elementary school projects in the county. She dominated! Little sis Kelsy (left) is shocked and awed by this impressive poster!

Close-up of Jamie's crater profiles