Curiosity Kills the Crickets for Sake of Science
Kevin Sher noticed something that piqued his interest. When feeding crickets to his pet green snake, the crickets usually ate each other or tore each other apart before the snake ever got a chance to gulp them down.
That observation became the basis for the 17-year-old’s study of how the level of aggression changed in crickets, depending on the size of the container they were housed in.
The 10 crickets left for 20 days in the largest Tupperware containers had fewer fights and fared decently. Only a few big crickets remained in the smallest containers, after having eaten or ripped up the other seven or so crickets.
“I enjoyed researching this, because I’m interested in evolution and aggression,” said the junior from Calabasas High School. “I read Konrad Lorenz on aggression and he did experiments with aggression in the ocean and with flocks of birds.”
At the Ventura County science fair Wednesday, Kevin was one of 860 students who brought in the results of science experiments in 17 categories ranging from biochemistry to zoology. This year, for the first time, the science fair also held a career fair with 56 booths set up in a nearby building for students interested in agriculture.
Sponsored by the schools superintendent’s office, the fair attracted professionals from a range of fields--such as engineering, medicine, agriculture and naval engineering--to act as judges.
“You can tell if it’s original work,” said judge Mary Elaine Dunway, a biologist from the U.S. Minderlas Management Service in Camarillo. “We want to know if it’s clear. I think that what most judges are looking for is how well the students understand what they are doing. Some can go through the procedure, but do they understand what they do?”
Kaitlyn Manaka, a sixth-grader from Chaparral Middle School in Moorpark, appeared to be at ease explaining how she conducted her experiment and why.
Kaitlyn, who wants to be a doctor, decided to test antibacterial soaps.
After washing her hands with five soaps--some antibacterial, some not--she realized that the regular soap killed off just as much bacteria as the antibacterial soap, but that none of the soaps killed off all bacteria.
With a podiatrist father, it was only natural for Marisa Stainkamp to develop an interest in feet. The sixth-grader from Colina Middle School used 10 sweaty athletes, and took cultures of their feet before and after basketball and workout sessions. Her conclusions: the athlete wearing the leather shoes with Orlon socks developed the most fungus.
“I got interested in this subject, because it’s different. I hadn’t seen it before. It’s not like, the which-battery-lasts-the-longest experiment. I’ve seen that at every science fair,” Kaitlyn said.
An awards ceremony will be held at 6:30 tonight at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Two students with the best experiments will receive a trip to NASA’s Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., worth $2,000 each. Other awards, ranging from $10 to $1,000, will be awarded by private and government organizations.
