CAMP ZAMA, Japan (April 24, 2015) -- Students from Arnn Elementary School presented their science projects and inventions to Soldiers from the 78th Signal Battalion during the school's annual science fair April 17 held inside the school's gymnasium.
Robert Deverick, Physical Education teacher, said students from kindergarten to sixth grade presented their projects, some by graphic images, some by technology, on computers and others by presentation boards.
The students talked about their projects and answered questions relating to the work they did for their experiments.
Deverick said that while the judges were there, the students had the chance to answer questions and go into a little more depth about their projects to show the judges their understanding.
Spc. Nathan Howard, assigned to 78th Signal Battalion, acted as one of the judges for the science fair.
"The kids are definitely less shy than I was when I was in sixth grade," commented Howard.
The presentations and projects were all well done, Howard continued, and it was nice to volunteer and judge the projects.
Staff Sgt. John Pantaleon, assigned to 78th Signal Battalion, said he noticed that the students really put in time and effort to create and present their projects.
Pantaleon, also a judge, said the presentations where different from what he originally expected.
"I thought I was going to come and say alright, good job; however, the time and effort the children put into the projects blew my mind away," said Pantaleon.
The way the kids tried to teach us what they experienced by participating in the science fair was amazing, said Pantaleon.
A science fair is a great way to give children the opportunity to see where their mind takes them, Pantaleon said, and also to find out what they are interested in with science applications.
Perri Furnei, a fifth-grader, presented a project titled "From Milk to Stone." The project details how the protein Casein found in milk can be heated and mixed with acid to change the Casein protein to a solid substance called Casein Plastic.
"When dried the substance become hard," said Perri. "I conducted this experiment to determine if milk can really be turned into stone."
Perri used five types of milk for her experiment: whole milk, low-fat milk, half and half, yogurt milk and soy milk. She said she wanted to determine which milk sample would produce the most Casein protein and made the hardest solid.
The "From Milk to Stone" hypothesis was partially correct once the experiment was concluded, said Perri, because not all of the milk samples made the Casein protein.
"The half and half, and whole milk made the most Casein, but the yogurt milk and soy milk did not make any Casein," said Perri. "The low fat milk made the least about of Casein, but the harder solid."
"I found out that milk can be turn into a substance as hard as stone," said Perri.
The science fair concluded with projects from each grade level being awarded a first, second and third place finisher.
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