Science News @ TCM
Special Edition - Science Fair Winners!!
“Where There Is Charge, There Can Be Sparks!”
Can you say REPEAT? Congratulations to Symphoni Hillman as she has won 1st place again in the Richmond County Technical Career Magnet School Science Fair.
This year Symphoni won first place in the Physics category. Here is a brief summary of her Science Fair project: ''The purpose of my science fair project was to test the efficiency of a homemade Leyden jar capacitor and determine the how much charge could be stored as I tested different cycles. I hypothesized that as the number of charge cycles from the electrophorus to the capacitor increased, the distance of discharge would increase as well. To better understand how this was to happen, I conducted background research from multiple science based sites. In my research, I learned the Leyden jar was invented 1745 by German physicist, Ewald Georg van Kleist. Its invention was a paramount in further electrical research.
To summarize, a Leyden jar capacitor can be thought of as a battery, but rather than storing energy, it stores electricity. To create it, I used several common household items along with a few online-bought. Through a series of three separate trials, I tested my homemade Leyden jar’s efficiency. Each trial consisted of one charge cycle, five charge cycles, and ten charge cycles. After completing my experiment and recording my data, I discovered my hypothesis to be correct—for the most part; as noted in my data table, a change in spark length was not made in trials two and three for the one charge cycle. To better prove my hypothesis, and improve my project, I would conduct two separate trials consisting of three individual trials with charge cycles of one, five, and ten.''
The Science Department would like to thank SRS Engineers, Natalie Ferguson and Sandra Devoe-Bland, for volunteering to be our judges for this year's Science Fair competition.
A Science Fair Project is a way for students to demonstrate their curiosity of science. Our students at TCM researched topics pertaining to the world of science and discovery. Next, they used the scientific method to perform experiments in order to validate their hypothesis. Sometimes the data did not support their hypothesis but that is Okay.
Many trials and errors can eventually lead to the correct solution to a problem or question. The results obtained from an experiment can also help develop a new hypothesis. Overall the science department hopes that the process of conducting a science fair project was a very good learning experience for everyone. Great Job TCM students!