Two additional teachers will win a prize from Naturalyards at a later date. So collect your entries and get them in the mail by the February 29, 2012 deadline!!

Kids' Science Challenge

The new Kids Science Challenge is coming up fast. After the great ideas we got last year, I can’t wait to see what the kids will come up with this year. The competition will open for entries on October 1, and all entries must be received by February 29, 2012. Check back regularly many new videos, lesson plans and hands-on activities coming to the KSC site throughout September.

Pic 1: Sona getting ready to do an experiment in Derek Lovley’s lab at UMass, Amherst; Pic 2: Sona and mud battery; Pic 3: Sona and Ashley Franks in the lab; Pic 4: Guided by Graduate Student Jessica Smith, Sona performs an experiment in the lab; Pic 5: Sona visits animal lab at UMass.

Pic 1: Peyton playing golf; Pic 2: Peyton and Daniel Savin (Assistant Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering) in his lab at the School of Polymers & High Performance Materials; Pic 3: Peyton and Olivia McNair (AGEP Scholar – Chemistry, PHD Candidate – Sports and High Performance Materials);
Pic 4: Peyton in Daniel Savin’s lab; Pic 5: Peyton in Daniel Savin’s lab; Pic 6: Peyton and Daniel Savin (Assistant Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering) in his lab at the School of Polymers & High Performance Materials; Pic 7: Peyton and Daniel Savin (Assistant Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering) in his lab at the School of Polymers & High Performance Materials.

The Spritzer, Merrie Benjamin, her dad and the KSC team!

In the rear of the photo, left-to-right: musical instrument designer Bart Hopkin, Blair Benjamin – Merrie’s dad, Jim Metzner – producer of the Kids’ Science Challenge, and in the foreground, Merrie Benjamin and the finished prototype of the Spritzer Wizard.

“One of major problems these days is that there is not enough fresh water in the world. Today we use desalination in some pats of the world to solve this problem, but it is super expensive and takes a long time. My idea of using a microbe called lithotrophs may not only work faster but it would also be cheaper, so every one could afford it. Lithotrophs are microbes that can eat the salts in stones and rocks. If we could modify these just like how scientists modified bactria to make ‘bacafilla’ (the new cement glue) to eat salts in the ocean instead. It may work. However, since we don’t know if they are harmful to humans we would need to test them, and if they are maybe find a way to either extract them or modify them to self destruct after their job is done. I would love to work with a scientist regarding this problem.”

“How does the temperature of the core of the golf ball affect the distance that the ball travels? My idea is to create a ball warmer which would keep the core of a golf ball warm. If players place their ball inside the warmer until they begin to play a hole, they would be able to hit the ball consistently in any temperature. I asked my Dad how golf balls are made. We cracked open a golf ball and then googled how golf balls are designed. Our research told us that, while some golf balls have two and others have three layers, all golf balls have a hard plastic outer shell and a rubber core. Next, I researched how temperature affects rubber. I learned that the rubber inside a golf ball allows the ball to “bounce” off of the golf club. Therefore, at impact, the ball has an elastic collision during which energy is transferred from the club to the ball. There is a second collision when the ball bounces on the ground. It seems that this kind of energy is called kinetic energy. Balls with warm cores have more bounce: they are more elastic. Balls with cold cores have less bounce: they are inelastic. Warm balls have a greater ability to flex during a collision with the club and there fore transfer more kinetic energy to the ball. The warmer the core, the more elastic it becomes, and the farther it travels when struck. I spoke with my science teacher, Mrs.Graf, about kinetic energy and my ideas about how to test my hypothesis. She helped me understand that I had to keep all of the variables constant in my experiment except for the temperature of the ball. My Dad helped me to put up our tallest ladder–10 feet– so the height was constant. We taped a tube to the ladder which allowed me to drop the ball the same speed every time-so the velocity was constant. Finally, we strapped a tape measure to the ladder to consistently measure the bounce. My dad and I called Callaway golf to ask if they could mail just the core of the ball, but they said they could not do that. So, we took some hedge trimmers and cut away the outer plastic covering from three Callaway golf balls. We heated one ball on the stove to 100 degrees F, cooled one ball in the freezer to 26 degrees F, and kept one ball at room temperature. I dropped each ball 10 times from the ladder. “