Tippecanoe School Corporation
Students prepare for state science and engineering fair
Sue Scott

Four TSC students are preparing for the state Hoosier Science and Engineering Fair after advancing from the Lafayette regional competition. The winning exhibitors are Mannella Agyemang and Audrey Ross from Klondike Middle School and Bea De Los Reyes and Adi Palmer from East Tipp Middle School.

Klondike seventh grader Mannella Agyemang’s project is “Osmosis in a Living Membrane.” The seventh grader says the goal of her study is to determine the rate of osmosis in a living semi-permeable membrane: “The experimental research utilizes a living yam as a model semi-permeable membrane and prepared different salt concentrations ranging from 0% to 100%. There was a nearly increasing linear trend in the resulting water level, a marker of the rate of osmosis, for each 20 percent rise in salt concentration. Taken together, this paper demonstrates an approximately linear relationship between the rate of osmosis and the concentration of salt solution.”

Mannella Agyemang

Klondike eighth grader Audrey Ross did a project that measured RF (radio frequency) radiation on cell phones and developed designs to reduce it: “I was interested in pursuing this and came up with the idea after my dad had told me I could not have a 5G phone because of radiation concerns. Interestingly enough, I learned that RF levels during phone calls were significantly higher than everything else I tested.” Aubrey says while official test results have been inconclusive, her project has provided some low-cost, effective ways to reduce radiation risks.

Audrey Ross

East Tipp eighth grader Bea De Los Reyes focused on how reaction time changes as people age: “I tested five different people between the ages of 11 and 54. My results show that a majority of the time the younger individuals had a faster reaction time than the older individuals.” Bea believes the results could be important in measuring the brain’s health.

Bea De Los Reyes

East Tipp eighth grader Adi Palmer’s project is titled “Do the Lights Still Glow When the Temperature is Low.” She completed a series of tests to determine if temperature affects glow sticks. “The result of the project was that the glow stick that was in the hottest temperature water, was the brightest and lasted the shortest, and the coldest glow stick was the dimmest, and lasted the longest, which was over 50 hours,” says Adi.

Adi Palmer

The state competition will be on March 25 at IUPUI.