Middle school science challenge provides more than experiments

Intermountain Catholic

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The team of Emily Cokl (left), Justin Potter and Evan Berger make a parachute and drop it to test how well it falls before the actual competition begins.

SANDY – Thirty students from three Catholic middle schools competed in the second annual science challenge at Blessed Sacrament School, but more than scientific experiments were accomplished. Many students said what they enjoyed most was meeting other students and making new friends.

"I like getting together with students from the other schools for these science projects," said Ross Brunetti, an eighth-grader from Blessed Sacrament School.

It was science in action as seventh- and eighth-grade students from Blessed Sacrament School, Saint Francis Xavier Regional School and Saint John the Baptist Middle School performed three scientific experiments. The teams were comprised of one student from each school as they rotated for each experiment. They designed paper Alka Seltzer rockets that, if made correctly, flew into the air; launched paper airplanes and constructed parachutes to have the longest hang time.

"I’m very excited to be in this challenge because we get to have fun doing science," said Austin Candelario, a seventh-grader from St. Francis Xavier whose favorite subject is science. "My favorite project was accuracy and distance in making the airplanes. I’ve made them in the past, but I learned something new today."

Candelario accumulated the most points overall for all three experiments and won the first-place trophy. He also was on the winning team with Debbie Landis, an eighth-grader from St. John the Baptist and Sarah Wittenberg, a seventh grader from Blessed Sacrament.

"Today has been really fun because we have learned how to put things together and brainstorm together," said Landis, whose favorite project was the rockets. "We did the rockets in first grade, but this was more complicated and a lot more fun because it actually worked. Science is one of my favorite subjects because I love doing the projects."

Landis, Blessed Sacrament eighth-grader Emily Cokl and St. Francis Xavier eighth-grader Sydd Burningham won first place in the Alka Seltzer rocket project. The purpose was to propel a rocket with Alka Seltzer and water to demonstrate Newton’s third law of motion.

Candelario, Blessed Sacrament seventh-grader Sara Munset and St. John the Baptist eighth-grader Jordan Hendrickson won first place in the airplane experiment because their plane went the highest and landed closest to the target.

Candelario, St. John the Baptist seventh grader Catherine Billings and Blessed Sacrament seventh grader Madison Lopez made a parachute with the best hang time and accuracy. The parachutes were dropped 15 feet from a cherry picker, floated to the ground and then measured for accuracy.

Science teachers from the three schools chose the students who competed based on academics, citizenship, participation and interest, and brought them together. For the experiments, science teachers Jeanne Lindmar from Blessed Sacrament, Matt Fries from St. John the Baptist, and Vicky Simpson from St. Francis Xavier looked at a variety of activities the students could do as a team to design something that could be tested.

"We recognized there were a lot of students that are interested in sports and a lot of sport activities, but there was very little competition and community building activities in science," Simpson said. "We wanted to give the students an opportunity to work in groups and utilize what they know about science. Next spring we hope to expand the program to include the fifth and sixth grade students."

The science challenge was sponsored by the Alsam Foundation. "They provided the supplies so we could do this challenge to increase interest in science," Simpson said.