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EDUCATION Science fair picks up steam at Bellview Participation doubles for second annual event Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Apr. 7, 2016 at 8:23 PM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Apr. 7, 2016 at 8:23 PM » Social News No elementary school science fair would be complete without a miniature volcano spewing orange fizz like a possessed lawn sprinkler, raining a carbonated, sticky mist down upon some two dozen innocent, unfortunate, hopeful spectators. Enter Bellview Elementary fifth-grader Mila Robertson, who was more than happy to supply the fireworks during the school’s second annual science fair Wednesday night in the Bellview gym, pouring in the activator after her partner filled the faux-snow-capped cone with a liquid whose fire-orange color can be found soiling T-shirts in every laundry detergent commercial ever made. A mob of children and their adults surrounded the mini Mauna Loa – the real one in Hawaii is the world’s largest active volcano, notes Robertson — and leaned in as Robertson, wearing a flower lei in honor of the tropical peak, poured. Then …bam! Everyone in a 10-foot radius felt the force of Mauna Loa’s blast, including a mop-haired boy whose front-row view backfired severely as he ran for cover, a girl behind him who held her ground, beaming, and a science fair judge whose white coat was henceforth dotted with the orange splatter of discovery. “We decided to do it because we thought it would be really cool to, like, see something explode instead of just having a (poster) board,” Robertson said. “And also, volcanoes are really cool.” The cheers that immediately followed Robertson’s demonstration seemed to support that sentiment, although if Wednesday’s eruption is ever scaled up to Mauna Loa’s actual size Hawaii’s tourism industry would take a massive hit as its molten surface would be the exact opposite of cool. Robertson said the bombastic spew wasn’t her intention and didn’t happen during the practice run, but she was still pleased with the surprise result. “I felt it went good,” she said, suppressing a giggle, “but it could have been less like that. The judge said that it was a really crazy experiment but she liked it.” She did. The judge assigned to the volcano was Dea Collins, a nurse practitioner and one of several volunteers who walked the rows of experiments, asked questions and observed. “That was impressive, unexpected,” Collins said of the volcano. “I was not expecting such a grand explosion. But I’m impressed with the caliber of the experiments and their presentations. They’re very well presented.” Collins was also impressed with first-grader Brecon Cutler’s presentation which demonstrated how electricity works, and a “fizz hypothesis” experiment which was “very interesting.” “I would just ask them to tell me about their experiment, what they learned, what they would have done differently if anything, what they were expecting to happen and what did happen,” Collins said. “They’re really into it, and that’s the impressive thing. These kids love science and they’re doing a great job.” Bellview’s science fair didn’t exist until a parent volunteer named Kim Larson made it happen last year. At the time, Larson had a son at Helman and a daughter at Bellview. Helman had a science fair which Larson’s son participated in and enjoyed. Not so, at Bellview. “She was always jealous of her brother,” Larson said, “so we thought we’d bring it to Bellview.” Bellview’s first science fair last year featured about 15 presentations, but organizers were able to double that number this year. “I think it just caught on,” Larson said. Three rows of tables filled the Bellview gym Wednesday night as students displayed a wide range of experiments, ranging from the notorious volcano to one on endangered animals and everything in between. Other presentations included one featuring Mars exploration, one asking, “Can you teach a cat to sit?” (you can), and one displaying photos of a snarling wolf next to an angry wolverine under the age-old question, “Who would win?” The students used the scientific method to come to their conclusions, starting with a question and moving on to a hypothesis, a method and eventually a result. Aurora Diehl, a fourth-grader, focused on endangered animals for her presentation, and her display highlighted the plights of amur leopards, green turtles, Hector’s dolphins and Indian elephants. She had a picture of each animal and under each was a list of facts and a corresponding diorama that placed each animal in its natural habitat. Each of Dieh’s fact boxes explains why the animal is endangered — the leopards are poached for their pelts, for instance — and she spoke passionately about why she chose the topic. “You can’t do this,” she said. “It’s hurting the animals and it’s basically hurting our ecosystem. … You can’t kill any of those animals unless you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely are relying on them. Like, you’re lost in India and you need food. That’s the only reason you should kill them.” Second-grader Colden Friedman decided to study the exploration of Mars for his project. His display featured several pictures of the Mars rover, which he also constructed — with the help of his dad — using Legos. His construction looked remarkably like the real thing and rested on one of five books he laid out on the table. He said he read those books and more to learn everything he could about the fourth planet from the sun. “I realized that there were a lot of things going there so I really wanted to study this and I got a lot of books about it,” Friedman said. “Mars is the most accessible planet to get to because it’s closest to Earth and it’s on the far side so it’s not too close to the sun, and it’s not like the moon because it has polar ice caps and it has an atmosphere. Even though it takes longer to get there it’s more Earth-like.” The science fair, which Larson hopes will increase in size again next year, lasted about an hour, after which students packed up their displays and headed out. Bellview principal Christine McCollom credited Larson and Kristin Nagy-Catz with making the fair a huge success. Nagy-Cats, who has three children that attend Bellview, each of whom participated Wednesday, helped Larson organize the event this year. She said one of the things that make it special is that the students themselves take the lead in deciding what they want to study. “For me, it’s one of my favorite events because it’s not what someone else thinks is important, it’s something that’s interesting to you and so you get a lot of excitement and a lot of passion that comes through in these projects.” Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Apr. 7, 2016 at 8:23 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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