Powered by Curiosity In middle school science this year, curiosity took flight with big questions and big ideas!
S C I E N C E FA I R H I G H L I G HT S
Making Energy with a Multiuse Turbine
Kelvin Water Dropper: Turning Water into Sparks
Emma and Makaela, Eighth Grade
Charlie and Grant, Seventh Grade
Hydropower is an emerging energy source that transfers kinetic energy from water flowing downstream into electricity. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, hydropower makes up about 5.7% of U.S. energy and 27% of its renewable electricity generation. Hydropower could function as an easy way to generate electricity for communities that don’t have access to power grids and are located near water.
In science this year we learned about static discharge, negatively and positively charged atoms, and how opposite charges attract and negative charges repel. Our Middle School Science Fair project, a Kelvin Water Dropper Experiment, used two streams of water, one was positively charged, and the other one was negatively charged. Both streams were charged going through an inductor which used electrostatic induction to draw specific charges from the water, positively charging one stream and negatively charging the other. When the charged water droplets collected in metal cans, the buildup of opposite charges led to visible sparks. We aimed to figure out how many discharges or sparks we could get per minute and we hypothesized that if the water flow rate increased, then there would be more sparks or static discharge. We tested how changing the water flow rate (our independent variable) affected the number of sparks (our dependent variable). We constructed a frame to hold the system, added inductors and metal collectors, connected wiring, and used cups with small holes to create steady water streams.
We made a simple generator that could harness energy from high water pressure. This turbine is a model for larger generators. If a larger, similar hydropower turbine was put in a fast river it could generate electricity for a home or small town emergency. This device could harness energy in multiple ways. The model could become a tool for campers or other people who operate away from nearby electricity grids. Theoretically, if altered slightly, anyone could generate electricity by holding this generator in a nearby river or leaving it out in the wind etc. If the power the turbine generates was turned into a battery or charger instead of the LED we opted for, this tool could also help people around the world who might not have access to electricity.
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SCIENCE SPOTLIGHT
The Effects of Garlic on Ampicillin Geneva, Eighth Grade
Growing up, whenever someone caught a cold, the immediate household solution was simple: eat raw garlic. While it sounded like an old wives' tale, it sparked a persistent, burning question in my mind: Does natural chemistry actually possess measurable power against modern microscopic threats? When I began researching the global crisis of antibiotic resistance, I realized this curiosity could address one of the greatest biological challenges of our generation. Thanks to natural selection and survival of the fittest, aggressive bacteria are rapidly evolving protections against standard medicines. Antibiotics like ampicillin which target bacterial cell walls are losing their efficacy. I wondered if we could use a natural substance to basically ‘prime’ the bacteria first, breaking down their defenses so the actual medicine can easily finish the job. This led me to explore combination therapy—the idea that we can combine treatments to outsmart mutating superbugs. To test this, I turned back to my kitchen roots and isolated Allicin, the bioactive compound found in organic garlic (Allium sativum). My goal was to see if combining garlic extract with Ampicillin would create a larger ‘zone of inhibition’ also known as the clear area where bacteria cannot survive- than using the medicine alone. My hypothesis was built on a concept called synergistic potentiation: essentially making 1 + 1 = 3! by using garlic to punch holes in the bacteria’s armor.
I divided 12 agar plates into four distinct treatment groups, and using a carpet-streak method, I created a uniform bacterial lawn across the plates, meticulously placed five disks flatly on each, and moved them into my homemade incubator. After tracking 60 individual disk sites using high-resolution digital calipers, the results provided a clear pattern that validated my hypothesis. The negative water control yielded 0.0 mm of clearing proving the paper disks themselves had no impact on the bacteria. Ampicillin alone showed strong performance, clearing an average zone of 18.74 mm. The standalone garlic extract showed a modest antimicrobial footprint of 13.16 mm. When combined, the Garlic and Ampicillin dualtreatment completely dominated the plates, leaving a massive average inhibition zone of 23.94 mm! By bringing these two substances together, I achieved an approximate 27.7% jump in effectiveness over standard medicine. Allicin successfully acted as a force multiplier, disrupting the fatty lipid bilayer membrane of the E. coli and lowering its cellular barriers so the Ampicillin could flood in and prevent cell wall synthesis. Exploring combination therapy taught me that the future of medicine might not rely on inventing entirely new synthetic drugs from scratch. Instead, the key to fighting superbugs might lie in looking backward—re-examining natural compounds and using them to intelligently unlock and extend the lifespan of the medicines we already have. As we face global health threats, keeping an open, curious mind and looking for answers in unexpected places—even your own kitchen pantry—might be exactly how we find the next big breakthrough.
My first major obstacle was the extreme chemical instability of Allicin. It degrades rapidly if environmental temperatures fluctuate even slightly. To give my experiment a fighting chance and ensure the bacteria (E-coli K-12) could grow uniformly, I had to think like an engineer. Because I lacked access to commercial, medical-grade lab equipment, I custom-engineered a thermal incubator from scratch. I designed it to maintain a precise and constant environment. To prepare a sterile testing environment, I used a modified Tyndallization sterilization technique, boiling my handpoured nutrient agar plates in multiple intervals over 48 hours to trick and eliminate resilient bacterial endospores. OUR DAY EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL 29
Dreaming Up Biotic Organisms in Fifth Grade Combining scientific knowledge with imagination, students designed species complete with habitats, adaptations, life cycles, and cellular structures. The aim of the project was to demonstrate how living things survive, grow, and interact with their environments.
Chiroptera Cato (Bat-Cat) Hidden in the vast Kat Kave beneath Mauna Kea, the Bat-Cat is a cave-dwelling omnivore that eats bats, bugs, and roots, storing water in hollow stalactites and sipping it from below. It survives on about 300 calories a day and has a bizarre digestive system that liquefies food and expels it multiple times daily instead of traditional waste. Born blind, baby “kittats” rely entirely on echolocation but can fly immediately; as they age, they gain sight, fangs, and more cat-like features while elders return to echolocation as their fur grays. With oversized lungs for highaltitude flight, these social creatures live in a complex cave system of mini-homes and underground lakes, governed by an elected ruler who leads their annual migrations
Herb Cyano Draco (Plant Blue Dragon) Living in lush, plant-filled jungles, the Herb Cyano Draco is a self-sustaining dragon that feeds directly from the greenery growing on its own body. It can reproduce both by cloning itself and through fusion, creating new life in two distinct ways. When it enters water, its skin darkens to a deep blue for camouflage, while the plants on its body grow larger; in the air, its wings expand for flight. It exhales faint neon fumes, and its waste takes the unusual form of tiny blue and green flowers—though when sick, it produces heartshaped versions instead, adding a strangely tender twist to this already extraordinary creature.
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Crotalushorridusspinosaurusaegyptiacus (Timbersaurus) Part forest giant, part aquatic hunter, the Timbersaurus is a towering, six-ton omnivore that feeds on everything from trout and moose to rosemary and sunlight itself. It stores water in a hump on its back (sipped up with a long tongue), absorbs heat and fire through its scales for winter survival, and hunts with sharp teeth and a powerful, rattling, grasping tail. As it ages, it grows thicker, sharper, and more amphibious - developing webbed feet, better hearing, and spines along its hump - while shedding and regenerating its tail every six months. With venom in its cells and the ability to breathe like humans, it’s a bizarre, ever-adapting force of the forest.
Pinguinus Feline (Penguin-Cat) In the snowy expanse of Antarctica’s southern oceans, the Pinguinus Feline blends feline precision with penguin resilience. With a cat’s head, sharp eyesight for blizzards, and hypersensitive whiskers and ears, it tracks prey with uncanny accuracy, diving into icy waters using flippers and wings to catch fish with its sharp teeth. Its waterproof feathers keep it warm, while claws grip slick ice with ease. Newborns, however, are helpless— lacking both teeth and claws, they are carried by their mothers and fed pre-chewed fish until they’re ready to face the frozen world on their own.
Designing for Dignity in Sixth Grade What does it actually take to stay warm and safe without a home? In this project, students had a $2 budget to design a small-scale prototype blanket or sleeping pad built with science and human needs in mind. By researching San Mateo and beyond, students explored how design, science, and empathy can intersect to address urgent community challenges with imagined solutions that are not only practical, but humane.
Combination Sleeping Bag and Sleeping Pad Ansley C. and Liv W. Our product is designed to insulate heat to optimize warmth. It is designed to fit people of all sizes, therefore it comes in lengths of 5-8 feet and widths ranging from 3-6 feet. The newspaper insulation in the sleeping bag ensures that the bag retains body warmth. This prototype cost us $1.51 total, making it an affordable, accessible, and easily designed tool to tackle the issue of warmth for houseless people.
Shelter in Place Lily D. and Grayson V. Our goal in designing this shelter was to design a safe, warm place, for houseless people living on the streets. When making the blueprint for a sleeping bag, we thought ‘shouldn’t we make a little tent on top of it so people can stay dry during the rain?’ So our product gradually evolved into this. Homeless shelters operate on varying budgets with costs generally ranging from roughly $14,000 to over $30,000 per bed per year and often have to turn people away when they are at capacity. This low cost option could provide a temporary alternative to homeless shelters which are already operating under tight budgets. OUR DAY EPISCOPAL DAY SCHOOL 31