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Ulm Students Participate in Annual Science Fair

By Charlie Keegan

Story Created: Feb 2, 2012 at 8:23 PM MDT

Story Updated: Feb 2, 2012 at 8:23 PM MDT

Thursday was a day filled with science in Ulm. Middle school students presented their projects at the annual science fair.

“I want to be a basketball player in the future. My favorite thing is to play basketball,” seventh grader Cody Turan says.

Cody never thought much about science while spinning a basketball. He'd heard of density and gravity, but not in his favorite game, right? “I never thought about it that much,” he admits.

So when his teacher said he needed a project for the science fair, he took the thrill of the sport and applied it to science. Saying, “This experiment was just to find out which basketball brand bounces the best so, in the future, I could use that as a tool in my life.”

With a hypothesis on paper and three balls ready to bounce, Cody started the science experiment. “I used the basketball, but I didn't use any force, I just dropped it three feet and I used a yardstick to measure the bounce,” he explains.

The Spalding brand did best. And now the next time he lets a shot fly, Cody will be thinking about all the science involved. “I was just thinking about all the stuff that really is behind the bounce of a ball, like all the energy in it,” he says.

Ashtyn Schlotter has science in mind every time she turns on the faucet. In her experiment, she figured out which type of water - hard or soft - would be best for drinking and which would be best for cleaning.

“My hypothesis was that the soft water would foam up the most,” she explains.

By mixing soap with different waters, she determined hard water is best for human health. “And it has more minerals and soft water is easier to wash dishes and do laundry,” she explains.

The elementary students presented group projects to the school in the afternoon.

Cody won second place in the physical science category.

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