Oxford Learning Center students enter newly implemented science fair
The Oxford Learning Center (OLC) held its first science fair for the first time in about six years this month.
Students were required to participate in this year’s science fair either individually or with a partner. However, students were given free range to pick a topic that interests them.
“It is both a competition but a learning experience for the entire student body,” OLC Principal Yolanda Logan said. “We want them to learn about, reinforce the lessons they’ve had throughout the year as well as have a little playful competition amongst each other.”
Since the OLC doesn’t have enough students to split their science fair into individual categories, all the students competed against each other in one big category.
“They were all in one category though they know what their particular project is,” Logan said. “If we had more students, we would compete from category to category, but this was just one entire fair based on comparing all of the projects.”
The students were judged by nine different judges from across the district, and their scores were based off of several criteria. Then, to determine the winners, the scores from each judge were complied together and averaged.
“There were two parts of the judging process that was based on their actual presentation: eye contact and how well they knew their project. The rest of the criteria was based on the experiment itself, “ Logan said. “Six of them [criteria] were based on the scientific method: their purpose, hypothesis, materials, data, results. “
While students were required to participate, many took this opportunity as a way to do new things and further their knowledge.
“I was actually really excited because I wanted to try something new, “ sophomore Ashleigh Coleman said. “I'd never ever been in a science fair.”
Senior Marquavious “Maraq” McJunkins and sophomore Katasha Hudson won first place in the science fair with their project, “Making Milk into Plastic.” They had to do some preparation before deciding that they wanted to do a project that was a little differnt from normal projects .
“We prepared by doing lots of research, seeing what we knew and what we didn’t know,“ McJunkins said. “because you can use it as like other things like household things, and see what you can do with it ‘cause its your everyday milk. You don’t think can do anything with milk.”
Senior Jarius Stokes and his partner Erica Delaney won second place in the science fair with their project, “No, Dr. Dre.” They tested the effect music had on human’s heart rate. Freshman Deajanai Evans won third place with her project, “A Moldy Mess,” in which she tested the best conditions for growing mold on bread. Sophomore Ernest Sears won the Future Engineer Award for his project, “The Burden Bridges Bear” Coleman and sophomore Gabriel McEwen won the Consumer Awareness Award for their project “Comparison of Absorbency in Commercial Diapers”
“Basis of our project is to see which diaper would absorb more water than the others, “ Coleman said. “We timed each of it [to see] how long it would take for the water to absorb [in] the diaper. We did separate colors in a each cup, half a cup in all types of diaper brands.”
While the OLC Science Fair was small this year, Logan has a dream of making it bigger and seeing what students come up with each year as the OLC starts to hold the science fair each year.
“I’m looking forward to it growing, and the projects becoming more challenging. I’m well please for this being their first time, “ Logan said. “I look forward to sharing it with not the just the students of OLC, but next year, for the district and possibly the state. It was a wonderful experience.”