Science fair gets sixth graders going

By BRYAN HELLIOS

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Hurley — The common’s of Hurley school was packed with people as sixth graders set up their projects for the annual science fair held on Friday.

Mike Swartz, math and science teacher at Hurley, said the kids put a lot of ­effort” into their projects.

To give his students ideas for projects, he talked with his class about science fair projects he did when he was in school and laughed about still having his board at his parent’s house.

“At first they really did not want to do the science fair, but all the kids gave me a lot of good positive feedback,” he said. “This is something I hope I can continue here.”

Swartz said students were given the freedom to choose their project and worked on them at home with support by their parents.

“There are quite a few I was really impressed with,” he said.

Steve Lombardo, elementary school principal at Hurley, said the fair allows kids to think like scientists allowing them to figure out an answer to a question by developing a hypothesis and conducting experiments using different variables.

The fair offers students an opportunity to show what they were able to learn.

“I think they are going to get a lot more out of it if it’s something they are invested and interested in,” he said.

Brodie Erickson’s science fair project compared the difference in growing crystals using varying water sources.

He said to make the crystals he boiled 1cup of water, added a quarter cup of salt, poured the water into jars, added dye, hung a string into the jar and let it sit for 7 days.

Erickson predicted tap water would grow heavier crystals than distilled or well water. He said his experiment proved his hypothesis.

“The heaviest one was 7 ounces,” he said.