By Lisa Carolin
Beach Middle School eighth-grader Nick Banotai wanted to find out if goldfish ate food faster in warm water than in cold water so he created an experiment to find out.
Starting with a hypothesis, he compiled materials, listed variables and proceeded with the hands-on experiment using real gold fish. Over a period of weeks, he made observations, obtained results and drew a conclusion: “The goldfish are more active in warmer water and ate faster,” said Banotai.
All Beach eighth-graders participated in the Science Performance Assessment. Parents were invited to see the experiments in Beach’s gymnasium on Nov. 5 and 6.
Eighth-grader Brendan Hackett wanted to find out whether foil or plastic better preserved bread, and discovered through his own research the answer was plastic.
“In a textbook, the research is from a few years ago,” said Hackett. “It’s better to do it and see it for yourself.”
For eighth-grader Aleksa Skiotys, the questions was which toothpaste whitener works best?
“I hard-boiled four eggs and soaked them in coffee, then assigned each egg a toothpaste,” said Skiotys. “I brushed the eggs twice a day for a week and found that Crest works best. It was a good experience making up my own lab and making my own observations.”
“I had a sense of responsibility doing this experiment on my own,” said eighth-grader Mitchell Black, who wanted to see whether bananas ripened faster hanging on a banana hammock or sitting in a bowl.
Students also had to evaluate each other’s experiments as part of the assessment.
“I’m incredibly proud of the effort put forth by our students both in the investigation and presentation components of their projects,” said Beach Principal Nick Angel.
“This is a seven-week project working through the scientific method,” explained Science teacher Dave Jolly. “The students develop from scratch an original work. The only way to really learn science is to be in it completely. These experiments will probably stick with these kids forever.”
Jolly says that this is the fifth and final year of the Science Performance Assessment in its current form.
“The movement in science now is to go into engineering, which might change the kind of project we do,” said Jolly.
