Inuvik (Mar 24/06) - If you ever wanted to know which batteries last longer, whether or not dogs can see colour, or which solution is better to clean pennies with, then the SAMS gymnasium was the place for you on Tuesday.

Students presented a creative array of science projects and their various discoveries to peers and judges that day.

In what has become an unofficial tradition of sorts, several working volcano models were on display. However, Robyn Rinas upped the ante in the build department with her homemade Morse Code machine.

Investigated the mysteries

And while some students investigated the mysteries of static electricity or the absorption potential of celery sticks, others went with experiments that provided some useful consumer information.

Travis Smith was one of those, asking the question: Which colour candles burn the fastest?

“The white ones burn the fastest,” he concluded. “And the red ones burn the slowest.”

Green and purple ended up somewhere in between. That’s good information to know when planning a dinner party.

So why did he decide to do the project?

“Oh, I don’t know. It was just last minute,” he said.

Somewhat more enthusiastic about the scientific method was Dang Dang Gruben, whose hydrodynamics project - which is the fastest way to transfer liquid from one bottle to another - sent water into a vortex that resembled a tornado. “I’m in love with science now. I think I should be a scientist,” he declared.

Returning to the consumer reports front, Scott Boudreau tested the staying power of four brands of batteries. Predictably, Duracell and Energizer were the winners, but Boudreau had this smart-shopper tidbit to add.

“Mastercell are the best because they last almost as long as Duracells, but they’re less than half the price.”

But perhaps the most interesting project was done by Evan Lemieux and Dustin Rogers. In their experiment, the pair tried to determine if Lemieux’s dog Bear was able to see colours.

After getting the dog to eat treats from a red sheet of paper instead of an adjacent yellow one, the boys seemed confident that Bear could distinguish between colours.

“Or it could have been because red is a darker colour,” admitted Rogers.

So did they do the test on Dustin’s dog?

“We couldn’t test his dog because it’s small and hyper,” said Lemieux.