Written by Dora Long (Class of 2026) and Ms. Yee (Instructor)

This year the 5th and 6th graders were able to participate in a science exposition. They learned many new things and presented their projects to the elementary students and their classmates. 

There were four groups of students that investigated different science topics according to their interests.  The first group was The Lava Lamp by Claire, Maya, Roe and Sasha. They learned how to make a lava lamp with a plastic water bottle, water,  oil, Alka-Seltzer, and food coloring. Along with the fun and exciting new experiences they had, they participated in a hands-on science experiment and made videos to document the learning to share with their classmates. 

The second group was Liquid Densities by Wren and Kelly. They wanted to find out the density for common products found in a household. They used honey,  dish soap, water, vegetable oil, baby oil and a jar. For their experiment, they put food coloring in each type of liquid so it was easier to recognize the different liquids used. Then they poured the honey, dish soap, water, vegetable oil, and baby oil all in the jar. They stirred it all together to see what would happen. Which type of liquid had a greater density? After several hours, the liquids settled, and the results were apparent. Honey had the greatest density, forming a layer on the bottom of the jar. 

The third group was Germs in your House.  Have you ever wondered which area in your house is the cleanest? How about the dirtiest? This prompted Josette and Selene to conduct an investigation to find out which surfaces in their homes are the dirtiest and cleanest. They used Petri dishes, cotton swabs, agar syrup, a small cardboard box, a beaker, and disinfecting wipes. They heated up the agar and poured some in each of the Petri dishes. Then they used a cotton swab to swab a different surface area in their home. They repeated the same step, but cleaned each surface area with a disinfectant wipe before swabbing this time. They took the samples and put them in the Petri dishes. They waited a week for the bacteria to grow. In the end, they found out that some of the areas they predicted that were going to be the dirtiest were actually not as dirty, and what was perceived to be the cleanest areas were quite dirty. Everyone found the experiment to be very interesting! 

Last but not least, Ruhi presented Three Forms of Water. The students learned that we use three forms of water. First, there is water in its liquid form that we drink each day. Next, there is ice which is a solid form when water freezes, and lastly there is steam when water turns into a gas.

The elementary students learned a lot from the science expo. Thank you to the fifth and sixth graders for sharing these amazing presentations with us! Science is all around us – stay curious and keep asking great questions!