POSTER PRESENTATIONS

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poster presentation winners

Angela 
Mentor: David Craig, Teacher, Wiesbaden HS
FIRST PLACE

Our first place winner was Angela from Wiesbaden HS with her research entitled Connections Between Zodiac Signs and Human Behavior. She won the following for her achievements at the Regional level; a $200.00 Regional cash award, and a trip to the National JSHS in Washington, D.C. 

Connections Between Zodiac Signs and Human Behavior

This research investigates whether there is a relationship between astrological signs and human behavior. To assist in the research a survey containing forty six questions was constructed, and each question pertained to a specific characteristic trait. Eight-four participants were included in this experiment, every individual were of ages 14 and older. After a required amount of information was gathered and analyzed, the conclusion stated that there is no correlation between a person’s astrological sign and their behavior. Since most of the data produced correlation values very close to zero (Average = -0.02), this led to accept the null hypothesis.

Sierra
Mentor: Kathleen Tierney, Teacher, Rota HS
SECOND PLACE

Our second place winner was Sierra from Rota HS with her research entitled Planting by the Moon to Test the Accuracy of The Farmers’ Almanac. She won the following for her achievements at the Regional level; a $150.00 Regional cash award.

Planting by the Moon to Test the Accuracy of The Farmers’ Almanac

The Farmers Almanac is very popular worldwide and is trusted and recommended by many farmers.  The almanac provides many key tips for planting under many circumstances and different means of planting.  I have chosen to test its theory about plating by different moon cycles.  The almanac has a specific day-by-day calendar of each days moons faze.  The growth rate is predicted to depend upon what phase the moon is at and I wanted to test if this was accurate.  I hypothesized it would be since the almanac is so worldly popular it has to be reliable and 100% of what was planted would grow.  The data showed that not all plants grew when they were supposed to.  Although my hypothesis was incorrect saying that 100% of the crops would grow on good days and 0% would grow on bad days the data does in fact support The Farmers Almanac Planting by the Moon.  My data shows a greater percentage (91%) of sprouted plants on good planting days than those on the barren days (15%).  Planting by the moon seems to give a reliable growing guide.     

Isayara, Menwith Hill School, England
Mentor: Michelle Harrington, Teacher, Menwith Hill HS
THIRD PLACE

Our third place winner was Isayara  from Menwith Hill with her research entitled Do Enzymes Stay as Active in Processed Food vs. Fresh Food? She won the following for his achievements at the Regional level; a $100.00 Regional cash award. 

Do Enzymes Stay as Active in Processed Food, vs. Fresh Food?

The researcher wanted to know if process foods have the same presence of enzymes like fresh foods does. The researcher’s hypothesis was that the enzymes would be harmed by the methods of processing food. For this study, the independent variable was the type of processed food and the way they were processed. The dependent variable was the amount of oxygen produce. The researcher found that in the fresh foods the amount of oxygen produced during 10 minutes was around 13.8, 13.9%. This indicated a presence of enzymes in these fresh vegetables. During this research the fresh fish produced 6.2% of oxygen, also indicating the presence of enzymes in fresh fish. The researcher found that this was not evidence of presence of enzymes in this kind of food. After conducting this experiment, one concluded that fresh foods have a presence of enzymes. After testing, the research found that the canned, jarred, and frozen foods have no presence of enzymes. This implies that people need to eat more natural foods for them to get the enzymes that their body needs in order to digest food.

Seanwolfgang, Ramstein HS, Germany
Mentor: Margaret Hess, Teacher, Ramstein HS
FOURTH PLACE

Our fourth place winner was Seanwolfgang l from Ramstein HS with his research entitled A Proposed Method of Testing for Chloride Samples and Its Results. He won the following for his achievements at the Regional level; a $50.00 Regional cash award.

A Proposed Method of Testing for Chloride Samples and Its Results

Currently, there is no specific way to test for the amount of chloride in a sample of fuel.  This problem became a growing concern in the American Air Force, so they proposed to begin testing a method to use.  The researchers believed that the method tested in this paper would remain consistent with the various data points, and therefore prove its accuracy.  Given the data and its repeatability, the test method appears to be a viable method to calculate the chloride concentration in fuel samples.

Poster presentation entries

Dylian, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy 
Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Dylian Jackson, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy

Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Hills and Loops Affecting Kinetic and Gravitational Potential Energy

For this experiment, the researcher made two different types of roller coasters, one with a loop the other a hill. His hypothesis was, “if comparing the potential energy on a roller coaster with either a loop or a hill, then the energy for the loop will have a shorter time running on the track. “ The  procedure was taking the soldering iron  wire and making tracks for each roller coaster. Then he would run the marble down the track ten times and would time each run. After that, he would add up all the times to get the average time for each roller coaster. He would take the average time to get the kinetic energy. The kinetic energy for the loop was 5152.3684 joules while the hill kinetic energy was 8,686.24 joules. The results turned out to be the hill was the fastest and had the most energy converted.

Sarah, Menwith Hill School, England
Mentor: Phillip Cooper, Teacher, Menwith Hill 

Sarah, Menwith Hill School, England

Mentor: Phillip Cooper, Teacher, Menwith Hill

The Connection between Emotion and Memory

The purpose of my project was to test my hypothesis: If something makes a person feel strongly emotionally, they will remember it better than something that does not invoke a strong emotion in them. I had noticed in my own personal experience that this tended to be true, and I was interested to test this hypothesis. I was curious to find out whether or not strong emotion could be correlated to strong memory. In order to test my hypothesis, I showed high school students three sets of ten randomly assorted advertisement videos. Each video was classified as emotionally shocking, happy or funny, or boring. After watching each set of advertisement videos, students were asked to write down as much about as many commercials that they saw in that set as they could. I determined that the videos that were classified as emotionally shocking and happy/funny were remembered more frequently and in more detail than the boring videos. The “emotional” advertisement videos were remembered better and more often than the boring videos, affirming my hypothesis that emotion can and does affect memory.

Alexander, Shape American High School,  Brussels
Mentor: Deborah Pennell-Wilcox, Teacher, Shape American High School

Alexander, Shape American High School,  Brussels

Mentor: Deborah Pennell-Wilcox, Teacher, Shape American High School

Mental Conflict and Perception in Relation to Concentration

The aim of this study is to ascertain whether the Anterior Cingulate Cortex’s function in error detection may disrupt the process of making decisions. This has been tested by subjecting volunteers to a variation of the Asch Conformity Experiments in which they have varying times to respond. A greater conformity was equated with a lack of ability to concentrate; in this case held to be due to the actions of the anterior cingulate cortex.  This factor may play a crucial role when it comes to making decisions in the company of others, especially when they are setting an example. This may have implications in the fields of law, the military, and possibly economics as well. The results so far have not established a clear correlation, but this is likely due to the small sample size.

Junajoy, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy 
Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Junajoy, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy

Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Reward VS Punishment

The purpose of the experiment is to identify the strongest motivator between rewards and punishments in order to provide teachers the best way to ensure that schoolwork contains genuine effort from the student. The use of rewards as a motivation for completing assignments accurately appears to be more effective than using punishments. By assigning three quizzes to a group of ten sixth-­‐grade students, with each involving either a reward, punishment, or neither, the hypothesis was tested. For every test, the number of questions answered correctly was averaged and the mode was found. The same was done to the number of questions answered incorrectly. Through this, it was easy to identify the performance difference between all three tests. The subjects were able to answer an average of 0.9 more questions correctly during the reward quiz than during the punishment quiz. During the reward quiz, contrary to the control and punishment quiz, all of the subjects answered their questions accurately. Therefore, rewards better motivate students to completely and accurately finish their assignments.

Nathan, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy 
Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Nathan, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy

Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Can a hamster’s diet affect their pregnancy?

The purpose of this experiment was could a hamster’s diet affect their pregnancy.  The experiment was narrowed down to one food category, dairy.  The hypothesis was if a pregnant hamster consumes eight grams of dairy products every other day, then she will produce more and bigger pups.  This experiment was conducted over a period of about three months and is still continuing.  The researcher used two females and one male hamster for mating.  One female was used as a control and the other was feed cheese every other day.  After the pups were born they were weighed and counted.  The hypothesis was not supported because of mating issues.  Neither female hamster mated with the male.  Therefore, the hypothesis was not really tested.  However, the data shows that perhaps the dairy made the female hamster more accepting of the male.  It could be concluded that the dairy had a change in the hamster’s behavior.  

Elizabeth, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy 
Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Elizabeth, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy

Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Styrofoam: From Waste to Widgets

The purpose of this project is to attempt to reduce the world’s polystyrene waste by easily converting it into plastic items using acetone. The hope was to prove to others that they can take Styrofoam products and recycle them into common household items. The results will also help create an equation to calculate how much Styrofoam to use when making a plastic item of a specific weight. The hypothesis is that the plastic created would have a different form and weight (mass) than the starting Styrofoam with a secondary goal to show that the plastic produced by mixing Styrofoam with acetone, and then letting the resulting gel mix dry, would take the shape of the holding container. While mixing the gels it was observed that the more Styrofoam (in the form of drinking cups) added, to 8 ounces of acetone, the thicker it became.  These thicker gels, when dried for 24 hours, yielded plastic disks that more exactly molded to their containers. The disks were heavier than the Styrofoam used to make them, possibly due to acetone being absorbed or converted during the process.  This increase supports the project’s hypothesis and the project shows that plastic items can be formed easily, which may encourage people to start recycling. More tests should be done to measure the plastic’s toxicity, confirm the weight increase, and make sure that the gasses released are not harmful to the environment.

Hanna, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy 
Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Hanna, Sigonella High School, Sigonella, Italy

Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Teacher, Sigonella High School

Banana Peels: Alternative Teeth Whitener?

The experiment done by this researcher was taking coffee stained eggshells and cleaning half of them with banana peels and the other half with toothpaste for two weeks. The purpose of this project was to see if banana peels can whiten eggshells, a material like teeth. The data found that while banana peels do lighten the color of the stains, it does not do it as fast or as much as the toothpaste did. The next question the researcher has come up with due to this experiment is, which toothpaste whitens the quickest and most effectively?