Young Scientists

Palisades Charter Elementary School Hosts Annual Science Fair

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

From volcanoes and dissolving gummy bears to creating electric motors, Palisades Charter Elementary School rang in its young scientists for an annual science fair on Monday morning, February 3.

Over 100 students participated in this year’s fair, presenting tri-fold projects to family and friends in the Pali Elementary Auditorium.

Pali parent Karen Attyah, who worked with Christina Van der Ohe, Anna Hsu and Kshama Mehra to organize the event, said the turnout was great for it being an optional science fair.

“It’s really nice to see the spectrum of kids, and the kids who start in kindergarten and do it every year,” Attyah said.

While all students, kindergarten through fifth grade, are invited to participate, only fifth-grade projects are reviewed by a series of judges. Six judges made up the panel this year, a culmination of Pali parents with MDs or PhDs, and faculty from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The projects were judged on the innovation of ideas, understanding of the topic and presentation of the experiment.

Participants each received a participation ribbon, while fifth graders who placed in the competition received a science kit.

Aubrianna Sobhani earned first place with her project, “Homopolar Motor.”

She explored energy traveling through a copper wire, a project inspired by Michael Faraday who invented the Homopolar Motor in the 1820s.

Sobhani revealed to the Palisadian-Post the tools necessary to do this project: magnets, batteries, copper wire and a whole lot of patience.

She said that her project took her a long time to get right and she even made final adjustments before submitting it in time for the fair.

Sobhani thanked her fourth-grade science teacher, Ms. Panza, for sparking her interest in electricity.

“I love to learn about electric chemistry, it’s really interesting to learn how the magnetic field works and how electricity brightens our light bulbs,” she said.

Sobhani added that winning first place was “amazing.”

In second place was Tyler Lenz. Dashiel Karish and Ilian Shapiro both took third place with their project, “Surfaces of Science.” Zooey Morris took fourth place with her project, “Taste Sense.”

Attyah shared that her second-grade daughter, Adriana Dawson, worked with her friend Emma Takiguchi on a project on magnetism. Attyah shared their findings and that they were excited to learn that the Earth has a large magnetic field that protects it from solar radiation.