Young scientists

Rabobank Convention Center was jam-packed with over 500 students anxiously waiting for their science projects to be judged last week. Wasco had 25 students exhibit their science fair projects at the county competition, with six winning awards.

An eighth-grader from Thomas Jefferson School, Farmer Moreno, took 1st place in Science and Antonio Maldonado, a sixth-grader from Palm Avenue, took 1st place in Environmental Engineering.

Sixth-grader Yarelli Sanchez from Teresa Burke took 2nd place in Environmental Science and TJ seventh-grader Ria Patel also took 2nd place in Chemistry with a $50 award from the American Chemical Society.

An eighth-grader from TJ, Erick Perez, took 3rd place in physics and also took home a U.S. Naval Award and Certificate. Fourth-grader Ria Patel from John L. Pruitt School took home an honorable mention in Physics.

Students were anxiously standing by their display boards while watching others being interviewed by judges. The judges were broken up into sections and went from display to display ready with their questions for the young scientists.

Juarez built three different types of bridges to find out which could hold the most weight. He hypothesized that the K truss – a type of framing -- would hold the most weight because there were two beams, top and bottom, and both connected to one truss (tie or bind or fasten). After building three different trusses, he determined the K truss did, in fact, hold the most weight. "The results I received were that the K truss was able to hold on average 36.3125 pounds, the Pratt was able to hold an average of 29.52777 pounds and the Warren truss bridge held 28.125 pounds," Juarez said. "This project is useful to me because it lets me know which bridge to trust." He stated that he wants to be become an architect.

Sixth-grader Roman Ballardo from Teresa Burke compared whether Coke or Diet Coke held its carbonation the longest. His hypothesis said that Coke would keep its carbonation longer than Diet Coke, but his hypothesis was proven to be incorrect. Diet Coke was carbonated longer than regular Coke. "Next time, I'm going to try different kinds of soda instead of just Coke," Ballardo said. "But, I'm not sure I'll do the same science project again. I might think of something else."

At another table, Karl Clemens School sixth-grader Erik Castillo compared fruits and vegetables to see which conducted electricity the best. The vegetables won. "The potato was the best vegetable to conduct electricity, and the grapes were the best fruit to conduct electricity," Castillo said. "The potato conducted the most electricity."

Even though 1st and 2nd place winners are able to go to the state competition, the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office will decide which students get to participate in that event based on the quality of the project.