Students show off science projects
by Garrett Andrews
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated; Friday, March 06, 2009
Speaking only slightly louder than the buzz of several hundred other student-scientists inside the reverberating concrete walls of the La Plata County Fairgrounds, Pagosa Springs eighth-grader Kendra Schlom explained her answer to the determining question of human existence: How did life on Earth originate?
She was discussing her entry in the San Juan Basin Regional Science Fair, a project that supports the idea that a meteorite could have transported early microbes to Earth.
In her project, titled "Finding the Origin," Kendra located the highest survivable temperatures for several primitive microbes and tested to see if these microbes could survive the temperatures a meteorite sustains when entering the Earth's atmosphere and crashing into the surface. She used basalt tiles to simulate chondrite meteorites.
Kendra and her father, a mechanic at Wolf Creek Ski Area, took an acetylene torch to samples of varying thicknesses, to analyze the time it takes the heat to completely penetrate the samples.
"From this information, I think that microbes could survive, because the temperature never exceeded the limit of what they could survive in," she said. "I believe that even if we went into lower thicknesses, they could survive, as long as the meteor is a quarter inch or thicker."
If she's right, then it's theoretically possible that these lone microbes ignited the evolutionary process that produced all of life as we know it.
Kendra, who hopes to study quantum physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after high school, was one of 209 entries in this year's fair. About 20 winners will travel to the state science fair in Denver later this month.
Fair coordinator Jeff Hatfield said that as scores in science, technology and math continue to slide, events like science fairs become more important.
"CSAP scores and other assessment data show that we really need to ramp this up a bit. The fair is when you can actually get kids to dedicate their time to an actual science project. They're doing all the learning on their own.
"The bottom line is that we want these kids to be strongly rooted in science and technology," he said.
Not all the other projects had such divine implications as Kendra's, but most reflected hours of original study.
Bayfield eighth-grader Denvir Clarke placed bacteria in petri dishes and studied over time the effects of various germ-killing household cleaning products.
"I found that my hypothesis was wrong," she said near the end of a run-through of her presentation.
"Antibacterial soap is less effective at killing bacteria than regular soap."
Standing near a prototype of his invention was Kolton Miller, an eighth-grader at Mancos Middle School. He rushed through the features of the Bear-icade self-opening bear-proof trash can with the panache of a salesman, eagerly maintaining eye contact and gesturing with his hands, even as he went on bear-related tangents.
"I'm aware there's already a bear-proof trash can on the market today. The difference is, my trash can is more convenient," Kolton said.
With the Bear-icade, there's no more manual locking and unlocking. The device automatically locks after the lid is lifted and closed, and is disengaged by the extending arm of a garbage truck. Best of all, Kolton said, area bears stay safe and out of trouble.
Upstairs, the four judges for the earth sciences category pored over the merits of the nine projects assigned to their section. Consulting geologist Mary Gillam, retired geophysicist James Albright, consulting geotechnical engineer Barb McCall and school psychologist Patrick Callahan were unanimous in supporting Kendra for first place in her division.
Her idea provoked discussion at a table of professionals.
"It was an unusual approach to an ambitious topic," said Gillam.
Said McCall: "It could be the answer to life's biggest question. Right here in Durango."
The contestants each went through two rounds of judging and some were called back. The judges put Kendra on the spot during her presentation, asking about the effects of kinetic energy on the microbes, and she took their questions in stride and admitted when she didn't know.
All of the entries were good, the judges said.
"She was just far more expansive," said Albright.
