Scientific Advancements

They live at Irvine’s opposite ends. In fact, they don’t even know each other. But Vanessa M. Danziger and Paul E. Norton have one thing in common. They’re the first sixth-graders in the Irvine Unified School District to become champions in the state science fair.

Vanessa, 12, who attends Turtle Rock Elementary School, and Norton, 11, a student at College Park Elementary, competed against seventh- and eighth-graders in L.A.’s Sports Arena and scooped first places in their respective categories--social science and chemistry. Vanessa studied the ethical decisions made by boys and girls, while Paul pursued the perfect bubble. It was the first time sixth-graders were allowed to compete against older students.

In his parents’ garage, Paul built a bubble measurement device. From a string, he pulls a wooden bar soaked in solution and checks how far--and how long--the bubble wall will stay alive.

His sister Helene, a 9-year-old fourth-grader, is the one who inspired Paul to mix soap, glycerin, water, sugar and gelatin to come up with the ultimate bubble mix.

“It’s really my sister who loves to blow bubbles,” he said, adding that Helene had dragged her mother to a soap bubble show in Seattle last year. “I thought, maybe I could fit her into a bubble. Who knows? Maybe she could fly away like a cartoon.”

As she played in front of the garage, Helene was skeptical about her brother’s chances of discovering the ultimate bubble-blowing mixture.

“We didn’t do it yet,” she said, adding that she hadn’t tested Paul’s bubble mix herself. “It probably wouldn’t work. You need a professional.”

So far, Paul has come up with two alternatives to the bubble mixes one can buy. By choosing different concentrations of soap and water as well as the other ingredients, he has found his own mixes, which he says are as potent and much cheaper than those for sale.

But he’s not finished yet.

“I already got the best concentration of soap,” said Paul, who wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a food scientist. “I could try others. There are a lot of weird additives out there.”

Both he and Vanessa qualify now for the national Discovery Challenge competition. Paul is pretty sure he’ll enter, but with her busy schedule, Vanessa was unsure she could make the Wednesday deadline.

“I’m going to try,” Vanessa said. “But I might not have time. I hope I go. It would be fun.”

Vanessa also hasn’t quite made up her mind about a future career. Maybe a child psychologist. Or working with animals. Or possibly an artist.

When Vanessa first thought about comparing boys’ and girls’ decisions on ethical questions, she predicted that her male classmates would opt for a self-oriented position, rather than one that reflected a concern about justice or caring for others.

“[I thought so] based on the way they act at school,” she said. “All important. But I guess you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”

Indeed, the boys surprised Vanessa and chose justice-oriented answers to questions such as “Is it acceptable for someone to help another person die?” or whether someone should take $5 from a teacher’s office when no one was looking. But Vanessa correctly predicted the girls’ reactions, who overwhelmingly chose caring-oriented positions.

Those taking a justice-oriented position marked that it wouldn’t be right to take the money, since it would be theft. Caring-oriented kids also opted against picking up the $5, since someone might need it as lunch money. A self-oriented child would have chosen the third option; he or she would take the money, “because if I don’t pick it up, someone else will,” Vanessa explained.

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To prepare for the project, she received a little help from her parents in developing the questionnaire and finding books to support her research. But most of the legwork--which included persuading kids to fill out the surveys--she did herself.

“It was fun to give them all candy bars as payment,” she said.

While the 11 female participants obliged more easily, the candy bars came in handy to get 11 boys on board.

“Once I told them they’d get a candy bar, they’d do it,” she said.