Young scientists show their stuff
By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer
Eighth-grader Yee Ting Lee of Kawananakoa Middle School discovered that hip-hop and R&B songs like Nelly's "Ride Wit Me" make teens feel more relaxed, while pop music such as Michelle Branch's "Everywhere" makes them feel extremely irritated.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Her science fair project, "The Effects of Music on Teens' Moods," may not be rocket science, but the 13-year-old enjoyed applying the scientific method to the topic.
Semifinalist Kaitlin Koga of Kawananakoa Middle School tells the science fair's judges about her project titled "Is Iron Deficiency Correlated With Diminished Mathematical Proficiency in Middle School Students?"
"It is fun," Lee said. "And I like talking to the judges and telling them what I found."
Lee is one of 450 whiz kids vying for top honors at the Hawai'i Academy of Science's 46th Hawai'i State Science and Engineering Fair at the Blaisdell Center.
The fair is meant to "get the students interested in science at a very young age and get them excited about learning," said director Shiyana Thenabadu.
Nearly 300 judges, including University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle and Chaminade University President Susan Wesselkamper, walked the aisles of the exhibition hall yesterday as students waited patiently by their project displays to be interviewed.
Public viewing of the 46th Hawai'i State Science and Engineering Fair
The bright, sometimes artsy displays, had titles worth a double take: "Are You Swimming in a Sewer?", "Super Slurper," "Getting Rid of Those Bad Vibes" and "Stick Bumps vs. Lava Wax."
Winners to be named today
Some had titles that appeared to be in a foreign language.
"The Role of Tropoelastin and Fibulin-5 in Cutis laxa: Production of Recombinant Proteins by Expression Cloning," was the project of Kamehameha high school senior Kiani Arkus.
For the non-scienced, the 17-year-old kindly explained: "I was trying to motivate bacteria to produce two human proteins to study a disease, Cutis laxa."
Other entries were short but sweet, like seventh-grader Yuuka Hori's project, "Aromatherapy: Do Floral Scents Help Students Learn Better?"
In her experiment, the 13-year-old from Holy Trinity School found that the scent of plumeria helped her test group complete mazes faster than if they weren't subjected to scents.
Hori is full of ideas for next year.
"By looking at the other people's displays, I got information for what topics to do next year," Hori said, "and I got some good advice from the judges, too."
