Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Mar 15/02) - As a prelude to the upcoming regional science fair, SAM's students held their own science fair last week.

The elementary-aged scientists displayed a room-full of the world according to research. From the early forms of life and modern day wonders.

Grade 1 student Kaila Jeffred-Moore's display was titled "Seashells on the Seashore." She chose the subject because, "Seashells are my favourite sea things."

During the course of her two-week research, she learned that some shellfish can be eaten and some you can hear the sea in.

Her display was adorned with shells she'd collected while on vacation with her family on Vancouver Island.

Grade 3 students Kimmy Campbell and Linsay Neis studied the properties of magnets.

"A magnet is a piece of metal that is used for many things, like an alarm system or on a door," Linsay said.

"Also on doors. If there was no magnet on a door and the it was really windy, then the door would blow open."

"If you stroke a piece of metal against a magnet 30 or 50 times, it will become a magnet," Kimmy said.

Grade 4 student Jordan Maring researched dinosaurs.

"They were alive a long time ago," Jordan explained. "But they died from the big asteroid."

Taylor Reid is in Grade 6 and researched light and gardening.

Using samples of peas and radishes, she tested whether the vegetables would grow best with 24 hours, 12 hours or no sunlight at all.

"My prediction was that peas would grow best in 24 hours light and my radishes would grow best in 24 hour darkness," Taylor said. "Since peas grow up, I thought they would do best with the light and since radishes grow in the dirt, I thought they'd grow best in the dark."

"But I was wrong," she admits.

She concluded that the radishes grew best in 24 hour light and the peas grew best with 12 hours of light.

Grade 6 student Morgan Jeffred-Moore studied trussed and suspension bridges and which bridge could hold the most weight.

He built scale models of both bridges from popsicle sticks and fishing line and tested the load with fire bricks.

"The suspension bridge held the most," Morgan concluded. "The truss bridge was strong, but it just broke with 12 bricks."

The project took him a month to complete.

Kayla Schlachter, a Grade 4 student, studied the sometimes unstable earth's crust.

"An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip or fault and stresses in the earth's outer layer, push the fault together," she explained.

She further explained the three types of earthquakes:

"One is a normal fault and it's kind of like ... the ground pushes down and it pulls apart. The second kind is a thrust earthquake and that is when one part of the ground pushes over the other. The third earthquake is the strikes earthquake and that is where the ground pushes down at a different angle."

Kayla also included a section titled "Cool Earthquake Facts." One cool fact was that there are moonquakes.

"They happen less-frequently and of less magnitude than earthquakes."

For more photos of the student's projects see Page 11.