Young Students Tackle Real-World Problems At George Washington Carver Science Fair
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's budding scientists are competing in the elementary edition of the 38th annual George Washington Carver Science Fair.
Will a hot or cold rubber ball bounce higher? Can apple peels absorb enough pesticides to make water safe to drink? Those are among the questions explored by students in grades 4 through 6 in this year's Carver Science Fair.
Judges studied 300 entries on trifold displays at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Then they interviewed the young competitors.
"Can you tell us about your project?"
"So my project was, what flower absorbs hot water..."
"A lot of students have very, very thorough logbooks," said fair committee member Phil Brooks. "The timestamp, date. They put a lot of thought and work into this."
Judges chair Cathy Fadigan says today's entries are more advanced.
"We don't see the old-fashioned volcanoes erupting," she said. "We actually see real experiments where students are investigating a topic that has some real-world relevance."
The winners move on to a regional competition.
The high school science fair is in March.