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Elementary Students Experiment With Science; South Eastern School District Held Its First Fun With Science Fair.

Posted on: Saturday, 10 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

Elementary students in the South Eastern School District took their science skills to new levels this school year with the district's first-ever Fun with Science Fair.

Organizers turned the halls and all-purpose room of the Fawn Area Elementary School into a temporary lab so that students from that school as well as the Delta-Peach Bottom Elementary School and Stewartstown Elementary School could show the community what they had learned in science class during the school year.

"We're so excited about the show and impressed with the turnout of parents and others here to support it," teacher and fair organizer Tammy Grove said.

"This shows the developmental process through the curriculum. Teachers talk about that a lot but this is the first time we've put it together visually for everyone to see," she added.

Visitors to the building were greeted by Megan Skidmore, Lindsey Jenkins, Devin Walters and Troy Halczuk, fourth-grade students dressed in Colonial attire as a tribute to Benjamin Franklin. Under the direction of teacher Bev Morris, the students had delved into the life and times of Franklin, paying particular attention to his many inventions.

"He (Franklin) was a very important man in history. He did so many things that are still important to us today," said Lindsey.

Their own inventions and those of their classmates lined one of the school hallways along with banners, posters, type-written stories, kites and a paper mural designed to look like historic Philadelphia.

Inside the all-purpose room, more than 100 students chatted about the projects they had completed with the many adults who strolled through the aisles.

At one end, the kindergarten classes had posted information about the observations they had made about ponds, fish, birds and flowers and experiments they had done with fruits and seeds. At the other end, older students from the middle and high schools operated interactive science booths with subjects ranging from computers and chemical reactions to making bubbles and working with live animals.

Teams of students showed how they had used the scientific method from hypothesis to conclusion.

Rachel Whittemore's sixth-grade team divided six gold fish into three pairs and placed them in bowls with water from Delta, Fawn Grove and Stewartstown. Erin LeBrun's sixth-grade team experimented with how light affects plants.

Both girls said they enjoyed participating in the science fair.

"I think it's cool. It helped me to like science more," Whittemore said.

"Seventh-graders do this kind of stuff (science fairs) so I thought it was a good idea that we do it now to get experience," LeBrun added.

Holding an elementary science fair within the district is good exposure for the students and the community, Grove said.

"This fair is a sort of feeder program for the middle and high schools. Hopefully, it gets kids excited about science and they carry that with them through the rest of their school years," she said.

The fair was not a competition.

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