More than 100 Kids Participate in First Port Jeff Elementary Science Fair

On Thursday night more than 100 students exhibited 80 projects for the inaugural science fair in Port Jefferson. A panel of judges from the community came to the school to pick a winner from each grade to go on to the Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) science fair competition on May 5.

School Principal Thomas Meehan was impressed with the array of submissions at the fair, saying that all the kids worked very hard on their projects and followed directions.

“I was surprised with how well they followed the scientific method,” Meehan said.

One of the students, Sarah Hull, showed off her project titled “The Power of Water.”

She hypothesized that water can move heavy objects and developed an experiment to test it, which took her about a month and a half to put together.

“Water is more amazing than you think,” she said when asked what she learned from her experiment.

On hand for the science fair was Joan Kiely from SUNY Stony Brook’s Department of Science and Math Education. Kiely said that by doing these projects, the kids learned to observe an experiment and come up with an idea from results.

“I like to see this kind of science fair when they have fun,” she said.

Brookhaven National Lab was also at the fair doing experiments with polymers for the kids.

“We’re cross linking a polymer,” said Bobby Layne from BNL. “Making slime.”

Students were able to take home the bags of green slime made right before their eyes.

The focus of the night was on the rows of scientific experiments from the students in grades K through 5. Although the competition was voluntary, every project was submitted for judging.

Port Jefferson Village Trustee Bruce D’Ambramo, Mayor Margot Garant, Superintendent of Highways for the Town of Brookhaven John Rouse, Belle Terre Trustee Robert Sandak and Susan Sears from BNL all served as judges.

Principal Meehan said that the effort put in by the children showed that night.

“There was a lot of work done by these children,” he said.

Winners are listed below with the name of their project and their grade:

5th Grade
Video Games vs. Concentration
David Rattino

4th Grade
Eyes
Dylan Dugourd

3rd Grade
Sara Power
Sara Wiederman

2nd Grade
Grow-Ri-Me!
Henry Russell

1st Grade
Does Age Affect Lung Capacity
Olivia Schegel

K
Glow Stickers
Kiersten Parmagani