The Wrightsville Beach School cafeteria was quiet the morning of Jan. 13, when 68 students sat patiently in front of posters propped up on tables, reading as they waited to explain their science fair projects to six judges zigzagging through the rows, clipboards in hand.
Ideas for the award-winning science fair projects arose from unexpected situations, for example, when texting family members or spilling food on the couch. Fifth grader Cooper Hyldahl, who won first place with a project on texting abbreviations, said he decided to investigate which age groups of people are most familiar with text-speak after he perplexed his grandmother by texting her a message using abbreviations. He surveyed 44 people at Starbucks and Walmart, a gas station and the beach, plus family and friends, to test his hypothesis that people ages 19 to 29 employ the most mastery over texting lingo. He expected the 10- to 14-year-olds to stack up in second place, but instead, the 30- to 49-year-olds snagged the second-place slot.
Fourth grader Riis Weber, who won second place, also proved his hypothesis while learning something unexpected in his investigation into which household liquids polish old pennies. As he expected, super acidic lemon juice worked the best, but coffee, which is more acidic than water, did not perform as well as he expected.
A project testing the accuracy of local weather forecasts landed fourth grader Bryce Petit third place.
All fourth graders were required to participate. No third graders participated, but three ambitious second graders completed projects, including Max Hawthorne, who said he wanted to participate this year to be more prepared for next year’s science fair.
Hawthorne conducted an experiment to determine which household cleaners best remove grape juice and ketchup stains, an idea hatched after he accidentally stained the couch at home with candy and ketchup. Free to smear grape juice and ketchup on white cloth without repercussions — which he said was his favorite part of the project — he found OxiClean emerged as the best remover of grape juice stains and Clorox as the best for ketchup stains.
Hawthorne, along with fellow second graders Isabella Rieker and Hailey Schreiber, was awarded a participant’s ribbon. Fourth graders Rahul Kaycee and Christian Dieffenbauch earned honorable mentions.
Hyldahl, Weber and Petit will represent Wrightsville Beach School at the New Hanover County Schools Science Fair, held in the Murray Middle School gym Jan. 22. Public viewing of projects in the county science fair, which includes students in grades third through 12th, begins at 6 p.m.
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