On Friday, November 6th, the Annual Reverse Science Fair took place in the Junior High halls of St. Philip. It occurred from 1-3 pm and parents were requested to come in to “share their passion for science with the junior high students” according to Mrs. Ramirez’s weekly packet. Sample topics listed included: anatomy, water, athletic science, physics, music/sound, medicine, electricity, and others. The goal of the program was to inspire students to be interested and pursue their dreams in science. Many parents and volunteers participated and presented many interesting topics. The following adults presented:

6th Grade

Tom Nolan (JPL) global warming

Robert Maruna (parent) veterinary medicine

John Vrsalovich (parent) drought

Kyle Ostrom (SFHS) catalysts; elephant toothpaste; chemical reactions

Anvita Mishra & Charles Wang (CalTech) optical illusions

7-8th Grade

Dimitrios Antsos (parent)

Victor Leyva (parent)

Rick Campagna (parent) Van de Graaff Generator

Erica Kachmarsky (parent) archaeology

Michelle Abich (parent) nutrition/food science

Bill Sturgeon (parent) special effects

Anna Ho (CalTech) pulsars

Josh Brake (CalTech) microscopes/optics

Maria Okounkova (CalTech) general relativity/space time

Jim Curiel + 2 seniors (Bosco Tech) gold penny

LIGO grad student team (4 people; Craig Cahillane) spandex universe

Susan Paulsen (parent) El Nino

For the 6th graders, they rotated between five classrooms in groups listening to the presenter present. Some of the presenters included former students, parents, and people from JPL and CalTech. For the 7th and 8th graders the reverse science fair was in the Holy Angel Hall and some classrooms. Each presenter had 15 minutes to present and unfortunately to the limited amount of time not every group had time to visit all of the stations. The whole reverse science fair around two hours and included about twelve different presenters which included parents and people from Bosco Tech and Cal Tech.

Here are samples of the presenters’ presentations:

Mrs. Susan Paulsen, who presented in the Learning Commons, titled her powerpoint, “California’s Drought and El Niño.” She presented several intriguing facts: such as the highly varying rain levels in Los Angeles, addressed the drought situation in California, which increased from 2011, and explained El Niño and how this year’s would be one of the most largest ever. Presenting facts and charts for every slide, Mrs. Paulsen thoroughly explained and professionally introduced the complex topic. Thank you Mrs. Paulsen!

Ms. Maria Okounkova from CalTech, who presented in the Art Room, introduced the topics of General Relativity and Spacetime, titling her presentation, “General and Numerical Relativity.” She talked about Newtonian Gravity, General Relativity, Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, Numerical Relativity, and what made the fabric of Space/time continuum deform.

Mr. Max Isi, Mr. Craig Cahill, and Mr. Tom from Caltech presented their presentation in the Hall about spandex universe. They made a spandex model to demonstrate the revolution of the planets (orbit). They put a heavy marble in the middle to represent the sun and engaged students in throwing marbles in a circular pattern to represent the planets orbiting the sun.  Thank you!

Mrs. Michelle Abich, who studied science in college, presented in the Hall. She talked about nutrition and food science and how brown rice is the healthy alternative to white rice which lacks nutrients compared to brown rice. She explained the parts of a whole grain which include the bran, endosperm, and germ. The bran protects the seed. The endosperm provides energy. Lastly, the germ provides nutrients for the seed. She had the students sandpaper brown rice to get white rice which showed how all the nutrients were removed because the white rice is refined.

From Bosco Tech, Jim Curiel and 2 seniors used a blowtorch that ran on propane to make golden pennies after saturating them in a mystery fluid.

?Thank you to all the presenters for their amazing work and presentations!?