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FOSS Middle School Students Create a Winning DOL Project!
By Susan Berglund, Manager, MGH/Timilty Partnership, Roxbury, Massachusetts
In Mr. Cho’s seventh-grade
science class at the James
P. Timilty Middle School in
Roxbury, Massachusetts,
science does not end when
class is over. The students
have become so involved
with their investigations from
the Diversity of Life Course that they have extended their
research to the development
of science fair projects.
Questions always arise
during class lessons, but two
students took their questions
and continued to investigate
the way they learned in class,
as a team. Yeriseli and Roytel
investigated vials of “mystery”
materials to determine whether they
were living or nonliving. They had
many discussions about the materials
while working as a team. So when Mr.
Cho began talking about science fair
projects, they immediately thought about
working with seeds. They discussed
planting the seeds in vials and making
observations just as they had done in
class. Yeriseli and Roytel decided to
change the growing surface in each vial.
The question they would investigate was,“What is the effect of different growing
surfaces on the germination of rye grass?”
YERISELI AND ROYTEL DISPLAY THEIR AWARD-WINNING SCIENCE PROJECT.
Yeriseli and Roytel designed an
experiment to answer their question.
They used four vials to test different
surfaces: cotton, paper towels, potting
soil, and water. They decided on these
materials because they were familiar
with the properties of the materials from
science class. It was a challenge to grow
the seeds at home and to still work as
a team. To accomplish this they created
identical experiments in each location.
Each student recorded data over the
course of seven days. Yeriseli said, “We
called each other every 12 hours to see
if there were any changes. It was
frustrating when one person saw seeds
growing and the other didn’t because
we thought the results should all be
exactly the same.”
As the experiment continued, Yeriseli
and Roytel discovered that it was good
to have a partner to share the work.
They tried to share the responsibilities
evenly when possible. It was also nice
to discuss the science fair project and
the results of their research with each
other. According to Roytel, “It was more
enjoyable to have someone to talk with
about the project. We were talking about
science, and it was fun.”
Roytel and Yeriseli were surprised
when they were finalists at the school
science fair, but they were even more
surprised when their project won third
place in the Boston Regional Science
Fair. “We were intimidated by all of the
complex projects at the regional fair.
We did not think a simple project on
rye grass had a chance of winning.”
But the judges were impressed by their
knowledge of the topic, the design of the
project, and most of all by the teamwork
that created an award-winning project.
Congratulations to Roytel and Yeriseli
on their winning effort!
For more information about the Science
Connection Program, contact:
Susan Berglund
Manager,
MGH/Timilty Partnership
205 Roxbury Street
Roxbury, MA 02119
phone/fax 617.445.5712
sberglund@partners.org
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