Budding Einsteins Put Best Feats Forward

Christopher Hagan, a 12-year-old from Garden Grove, kept four types of spoiled milk in his mother’s kitchen for 21 days, all in the name of science.

Some sat on the counter, the rest in zip-lock bags in the refrigerator. His quest: to determine whether milk spoils faster if it has a greater amount of fat.

Does it? “Uh, no,” Christopher concluded.

And so went one entry at the 45th annual Orange County Science and Engineering Fair at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, where 450 students from 56 public and private schools throughout the county competed Wednesday for prizes in 17 categories.

The students, who ranged from seventh-graders to high school seniors, were judged on their experiments’ design and adherence to the rules of science. The winners will be announced at a ceremony Sunday. The top prize, which will be awarded to a high school senior, is a scholarship to the Weizmann Institute Summer Science Program in Israel, an international program that selects students to study laboratory research.

“It’s so wonderful to see these kids,” said Arnold Shugarman, a scientist who is president of the board that organizes the fair. “Some kids here come with lots of support and have all the advantages. Others are from disadvantaged homes and had no support at all. But no matter what, no one walks out of here without a pat on the back.”

Some students spent months hatching project ideas, such as 17-year-old Clifford Simon, one of two Weizmann finalists.

His experiment, which investigated the properties of a sound wave, took only a few weeks to build and complete, but the University High School senior spent months designing the project. He dreamed up the idea a year ago in his physics class, consulted with a good friend and cracked open a stack of physics books before giving it a go.

“Physics is something I grew up with,” said Clifford, who spent about an hour Wednesday fielding questions from a panel of seven judges, many of whom are scientists.

After the science fair, which began Sunday, he plans to concentrate on other things.

“I understand the science, now I have to figure out English,” he said.

Clifford is up against Villa Park High School student Courtney Choi for the Weizmann scholarship. The 18-year-old from Orange studied what camera shutter speed took the clearest picture of a fan’s rotating blades.

Last September, eighth-grader Ali Qureshi knew what field of study he wanted to enter, but he just didn’t know where to begin.

“I did a medical project last year, and I thought, ‘This year, why not biochemistry?’ ” he said.

The question led him on a monthlong search for materials. Ali wrote letters to everyone from the Royal Academy of Science in London to a biochemist in Nebraska asking for research materials on what chemicals determine the color of flowers. He filed their replies in a massive red binder, carefully indexed and bound.

“I love science. It’s my biggest interest--and my biggest worry,” he said.

Others did not toil as long. For her project, Manleen K. Wadhwa, 17, of La Habra distilled alcohol in her Cornelia Connelly High School science room and tested it for purity.

The outcome was pure ethanol, 200-proof liquor. Her parents didn’t object.

“They were really accepting,” Manleen said. “They just said, ‘Don’t drink it.”’

Start to finish, the planning and experimentation took two weeks, she said.

And no, she didn’t drink it.

“Personally, I’m against drinking,” Manleen said.