It wasn’t just students who learned something at Beeler Elementary School on June 8 — it was students, parents, siblings, extended family and more when the school held its annual science fair.
“Beeler Science Fair, the truth is out there,” read the sign as visitors began to trickle in to Beeler’s all-purpose room not long after dusk. Once in the room, those visitors were greeted with dozens of tables showcasing volcanoes, solar systems, robots and whole plethora of scientific experiments.
The evening capped off a day filled with science at Beeler, as several hours earlier was the school’s official “Science Day” where students were treated to a number of scientific activities, including a visit from owls from the Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge and sharks and stingrays from the Atlantic City Aquarium.
Beeler Principal Jerry Boland welcomed students and their families to the science fair and said he was happy to see the event continue to grow from year to year.
“Interest just keeps generating, and it’s wonderful to see everybody’s ideas, parent participation, parent involvement and just bringing this community together for a wonderful night of science and fun,” Boland said
One young scientist showing off his experiment was second grader Rohan Menon, who happened to have his hands covered in magnetic slime for most of the evening.
Rohan’s experiment involved placing iron filings into a slime he created from a combination of borax powder and glue, and then using a magnet to stretch the slime.
Rohan wanted to determine what would stretch the slime more: slime with more metal and a weaker magnet, or slime with less metal and a stronger magnet.
“Iron fillings are strong enough that they’ll actually move the slime,” Rohan said.
Another young scientist explaining her work was first grader Izzy Edwardsen. Izzy has an interest in building robots, so she decided to test if one of her racing robots was faster than the other.
Izzy said she used the same model kit to build each robot, and so in the end she learned both moved at the same speed.
Overall, Izzy said she just likes robots because of all the different things they can do.
“They can raise, pick up things, and they can also float up into space. They can even pick up heavy things like trucks and cars and they can help you drive,” Izzy said.
The need for speed also factored into the work of third grader Logan Banks, who focused his experiment on the movement of cars in relation to weight and force.
Logan blew air into balloons and the used them to propel different cars made out Lego building blocks and recorded what he saw.
“If it has lighter weight then it will go farther, but if it has more weight, then it will go slower. It’s also about force because the more force it has the faster the car will go,” Logan said.
Students such as Logan, Izzy, Rohan and others spent the evening explaining their projects to numerous fellow students and their families.
Beeler PTA chair of the science fair Lori Howard said she was just happy to see so much interest.
“This was a lot of work and this is something everyone chooses to do, and I just love seeing this turnout,” Howard said.
