Scientific experiments and inventions may sometimes fail. Usually, experimenters make a note of what happened and try again.
For example, among this year's science fair entries displayed at Immanuel Lutheran School on Thursday was an exhibit called “Jack's Experiment.”
It was Jack Jack O'Lantern. More precisely, Jack was a small carved pumpkin. However, its name seemed appropriate because the children's experiment demonstrating the life cycle of a plant began two weeks before Halloween.
A message from the students to Jack at the beginning of the experiment read: “Hi Jack! We are excited to watch your decomposition journey!”
It was inside a closed, transparent container containing soil, water, and spores. I left its container in the light. He had company inside the jar as soon as his first bud appeared several weeks later.
The container was finally opened in early March. By then, Jack was “mushy” and “smelled like wet soil.” He also made many shoots. That was March 5th. Tara Lara, the school's novice kindergarten teacher who led the young students through the experience, looked at the screen as she reported a sad turn of events.
“Unfortunately Jack died.”
The event occurred on March 8. The note on the experiment's screen contained the sentence, but was also interspersed with a sad face drawing.
“When we opened the top of the container, we thought he was hit by fresh air after making and using his own oxygen,” Lara explained.
But within about a week, the students were at it again. Here's the final note on the screen: “We wanted new cranes so we planted a new seed to hopefully add to the little ones' garden outside!”
While Lara said she enjoys such experiments with plants, she pointed to a device made by a sixth-grader with the help of his neighbour. He calls it the “hug machine.”
They are mostly made of wood with large cushions inside and a hole at one end.
The person using it would crawl in, head first, and stick his head through the hole. The pillows are motorized and the person lying between the pillows can control the motor so that the pillows provide the person with a sense of hugging.
This was the student's second copy after bringing this type of object to the science fair last year.
“He used constructive criticism from last year” to create this year's science fair project, Lara explained.
She took a tour around the room where all the entries were prepared for evaluation by the judges in the morning.
Among other projects, there was a demonstration of how the Northern Lights form, whether it is possible to change the acidity of sourdough bread, and a process showing how the heart works.
Families were invited to come later on Thursday to see what their children had presented.
Immanuel Lutheran has about 60 students from pre-kindergarten through ninth grade.
