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Middle School Science Fair：Showcase of Weird Science

April 4, 2016

Middle School Science Fair：Showcase of Weird Science

This year, the middle school Science Fair included new events, different from last year’s, including daily science lectures and an egg-dropping contest. However, the events held by each class were still the centerpiece of the Science Fair. The following is a list of some especially interesting activities:

A special one was the experiment in 7 (1), where students attempted to make a copper wire spin using magnets and batteries. A battery would be placed on top of a magnet on top of a coin for a base. A copper wire, folded into the shape of a bunny’s head, would then be placed onto the contraption. Two stamps were given for making the wire spin, and three were given for explaining why the magnet spun. A video was shown to show how it worked, but not why.

Also interesting was the event in 7 (3), where students tried to balance 15 1-RMB coins on a ruler. The ruler was placed on the edge of the table with a previous edition of the newsletter covering the other end, to give the ruler more counterweight because of the air resistance on the newsletter. The coins must be placed on the far end of the ruler. Some people failed, including me, at placing all 15 coins on the ruler.

In 7 (8), the class had a classic potato clock experiment. They had a potato, a tomato, and an electronic clock in the middle of a wire with a zinc stick on one end and a copper one on the other. The goal was to power the clock. That was done by sticking one end into the potato and another into the tomato, creating an electrical current that runs along the wire, powering the clock.

In 7 (9), students attempted to balance a coin on the edge of a freestanding piece of paper within 10 seconds. The key was to fold the paper to increase the base of support and therefore make balancing easier, although the weight of the coin collapsed the paper in my case. The 10-second limit was the hardest part of the experiment.