Science Is In The Air
By Katie Djurkowitsch
On Wednesday February 20 was the school science fair. Mrs. Landra
Knodel, Irene-Wakonda science teacher, says, “My favorite part about the
science fair is watching the student’s excitement as they learn something that
means something to them.” The idea for the science fair came from “Next
Generations Science Standards” and the students have been working on certain
projects dealing with air pollution, energy drinks, heart rate vs. free-throw
percentage, and effects of music on bacterial growth.
The science fair is turning out “challenging but exciting,” said
Knodel. She likes this hands-on approach to science and adding a competitive
element makes the students come up with better quality. “I’ve always liked
science since I was young. I like to learn new things about the world around us
and discover how things work and my hope is that my students will too,” says
Knodel.
The local competition took place Wednesday, February 20. The regions
will be Brookings, March 12. The top 4 in Irene-Wakonda will go on to
compete in the regions.
1st Place: Steven Kemp and Justice Mews
After fifteen hours of hard work and 70
dollars out of pocket Justice Mews and
Steven Kemp's work finally paid off. Justice
and Steven won first place in the IreneWakonda Science Fair with their handcranked generator that made enough
electricity to light up a bulb. Justice's dad
helped the boys to make their generator
which wasn't easy. Justice and Steven both
agree that the hardest part of the project was trying to find pieces that would work. It took
three different motors and two generators to get it running. Justice says “I was hoping to
win something, and I am glad that we won.” When asked what they would do differently
they said “We wished we used a different gear ratio, this would have helped the generator
run faster.
2nd Place: Taylor Lee, Lydia Schenk, and Kyleigh Melstad
Taylor Lee, Lydia Schenk, and Kyleigh Melstad got 2nd place at the freshman science fair
this Wednesday. The purpose of their project was
to find out how much Vitamin C was in oranges
and what factors affected the Vitamin C levels.
The girls said they spent around nine hours total
on their project. They will be attending the region
fair on March 12th in Brookings.
3rd Place: Bryant Knodel, Ben Gustad, Gabe King
These boys monitored activity (heart rate,etc ) during
shooting of free throws. They wanted to know if
heart rate affected the success rate of making free
throws.
4th Place: Ethan, Justin, and Landon
Their project equaled out the amount of electrolytes
in a sports drink, or how to make a homemade
sports drink. The total time this project took was
about six hours, and cost ten dollars. They got the
idea for the project from Ethan. He wanted to drink
pickle juice, because of the salty substance to stay
hydrated and prevent muscle cramps. So they decided
to make their own homemade sports drink.