Stockton Hosts Huge Science Fair

More than 700 sixth- through 12th-grade students converged onto the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey's Galloway Township campus Saturday.

Their presence wasn't to learn more about what the college had to offer them after high school, or to attend any sporting or musical event. Instead, they came to the college from more than 30 schools in four different counties to partake in the 36th annual Jersey Shore Science Fair.

The event, featuring award-winning science projects from the students, took place Saturday at the college's Sports Center.

“This event has become a Stockton tradition and each year the level of participation and competition rises,” said Dennis Weiss, dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

“Each year the science projects become more complex and creative.”

This year's projects included a range of topics including magnetics, hydrogen power, friction and more.

Students said they came up with their individual projects different ways. Some had gone to the Science Buddy website while others had an existing interest in the topic of their project.

Assumption Regional School students Thomas Napp and Rebecca Edwards, for example, were interested in wind velocity with airplanes and childproof products, respectively.

Using paper airplanes to prove his theory, Napp found out that planes with longer wing spans fly longer than those with shorter wing spans. The latter tend to dip.

Edwards said that she has younger relatives and wanted to test the childproof tops of at least three products. She used an aspirin bottle, a medication bottle and a bottle of bleach. 

Her test subjects were a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old family member.

"I don't think a lot of kids can get (most of the bottles) open" because they may not have the physical strength, she said. 

Some of the bottles required the person opening them to push down on the cap and then twist the cap to open. However, based on what she witnessed, each of the subject testers, including the 1-year-old, was able to line up the arrows on the aspirin bottle. The only difference is that the child was unable to pull the cap up.

A panel of experts representing local medical centers, the Federal Aviation Administration and area schools judged the projects. 

The first-, second- and third-place winners in each category earned the right to move on and compete at the Delaware Valley Science Fair held at Drexel University.

Additionally, the young scientists will be competing for a variety of scholarship awards.

“This is a great community event and a showcase for some bright young scientific minds,” Weiss said.

“Stockton is proud to host the event and we encourage our community to come out and support the participants.”