“My hypothesis was right,” said Elvison Dominguez, a sixth grader at West New York’s Public School No. 2, who found that ibuprofen dissolves faster in hot water than in cold water.
Dominguez placed one tablet of ibuprofen and one tablet of Excedrin in a tube of cold water, room temperature water and hot water for his project in the West New York Science Fair held Wednesday in the Joseph Coviello Recreation Center at 57th Street and Broadway.
The fair gave fourth to twelfth grade students the opportunity to compete against other students in the district.
“There was total cooperation throughout the district,” said District Supervisor of Science Mary Ann Cinque, explaining that each of the district’s six elementary schools and Memorial High School participated in the event.
The more than 213 students who participated in the fair waited for their turn to present their project to the judges. The judges included teachers in the West New York school district, as well as teachers from Jersey City, Guttenberg and Secaucus. Representatives from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Liberty Science Center and Unilever, an Englewood-based research company, also helped judge the projects.
The students originally completed their projects in order to compete in a science fair within their own schools. These fairs were judged by Memorial High School’s science teachers and the district’s teachers for the gifted and talented. The top five or six projects for each grade level in each school were chosen to compete in the West New York Science Fair.
A lot of work
Many of the students spent as long as two or three weeks on their science projects.
Melgily Valdez, the eighth grader from Public School No. 3 who won in her grade level for her project called Colorful Memory, spent at least that long to tally her results.
Valdez surveyed 20 males and 20 females to see of they remembered a list of words better in red or blue. Valdez gave each participant a list of words written in red and then a different list of words written in blue. After looking at each list for one minute, the participants were tested to see if they remembered which color each particular word was written in.
However, Valdez said that the hardest part of her project was finding people to participate.
“Many people didn’t want to participate in my study,” said Valdez. “They thought my project was weird.”
Other students worked on independent projects and tracked the results for a two-week period.
“Now I don’t have to worry about having someone home to water my plants,” said Yesenia Borbon, a fifth grade student at public School No. 2 who won an honorable mention plaque for her project which asked which would water plants better: a paper towel or a piece of cloth. Yesenia found that a piece of cloth works better.
And the winner is …
Although not all of the students who were entered in the science fair went home with a trophy, West New York Superintendent of Schools Anthony Yankovich reminded all of the students that they had already won.
“Everyone here is a winner,” said Yankovich, explaining that just being in the fair showed each student’s desire to excel. “The object is to continue.”
Besides giving awards for winning within their grade level, the fair also awarded a Principal’s Award for Best Presentation, the Superintendent Award for Most Creative and the Mayor’s Award for Excellent Achievement in Science. These awards were divided into elementary and high school categories.
And the winners are …
The following are first place winners in the citywide science fair:
4th grade – Willy Medina, Public School No. 2
5th grade – Caitlin Culhane, Public School No. 3
6th grade – Tye Schroeder, Public School No. 4
7th grade – Jennifer Urigiley, Public School No. 3
8th grade – Melgily Valdez, Public School No. 3
9th and 10th grades – Erica Mendez, 10th grade
11th and 12th grades – Myra Sanchez, 12th grade
Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Science
Elementary level – Marilyn Sasvedro
High School level – Myra Sanchez
Superintendent’s Award for Creativity
Elementary level – Dilia Cohen
High School level – Jaime Lopez
Principal’s Award for Presentation
Elementary level – Cosmo Cirillo
High School level – Ernie Modarelli