2022 Science Fair: 4th, 5th, and 6th Graders Compete for the Top Science Award

On Tuesday, March 8th, the lower school was abustle with students and teachers organizing their experiments to participate in OLHCA’s annual science fair. Unlike years in the past, the Kindergarten through 3rd grades did not do individual experiments, but instead spent the morning doing 4 experiments as a class. The students were able to learn more about air pressure, weather, magnetism, and water density. Do you know whether you will be able to drink more or less water with 2 straws? Or what makes a thunderstorm? Do you know what objects will be moved by a magnet? Or what solution will make an egg float? The kindergarten through 3rd graders will know! They used everyday objects to experiment and record their data from these four questions and finally draw conclusions. At the end of the day, the students knew facts about the earth and the atmosphere around us that they did not know before.

Meanwhile, in the basement of the church, the 4th through 6th graders competed against one another for the title of “Best Scientist” as they explained their procedures to the judges. The experiments ranged from using eggs to gas to magnets and more. The students were evaluated by two sets of judges - one set in the morning, and one in the afternoon. During lunch, a challenge was proposed for these students. The goal was to be the team to build the best tower out of marshmallows and toothpicks. The marshmallows and toothpicks were priced and whoever built the tallest, most stable, tower at the lowest “building cost” won the challenge.

The winning team was in the 6th grade - Logan Linnebur and Cyprian Bushnell- but once lunch was over, the judging resumed once more until there was a 1st place and 2nd place winner for each grade and an overall winner for the 4th through 6th grades.

At the very end of the day, after long discussions, the judges had the winners! For the 4th grade, Lucas Quiambao won 1st place with his “Melting Magic,” and Nadine Olson took 2nd with her “Crazy Crystals.” In the 5th grade, the 1st place winner was Lauren Ahearn, her experiment being “The Effect of Temperature on Magnets.” The 2nd place winner was Olivia Linnebur, her experiment being “Biomass to Biogas.” Lastly, for the 6th grade, Logan Linnebur won 1st place with his “Bridge Strength,” and Grace Beattie took 2nd with her “Eggs-Periment.” Congratulations to these six winners, but wait! There’s more! The judges evaluated these six experiments very closely to decide an overall winner for the grades, and the winner is… Logan Linnebur! A special congratulations to Logan and good work to all our young scientists out there! -Written by Monica Ballard (12th Grade)