St. Augustine School Annual Science Fair was held on March 6th with a full day of presentations before a panel of Judges.  The 7th & 8th grade students have been working on their research and experiments for most of the academic year.  

As usual our students did not disappoint-- showcasing a wealth of topics and scientific experimentation that was both topical and scholastic. 

Students select their own topic in the beginning of the year and begin their research.  Each student or group of students design experiments to prove or disprove their hypothesis.  Much is discovered along the way, a digital log book is meticulously kept to record the results,  and the final culmination is the presentation of their data.  The students present to several rounds of judges their hypothesis, experiments and processes, their findings and finally their concluding results.

They are then critiqued by a panel who score the students on their knowledge of their material and the quality of their research.   

The students are guided along throughout the process by Mrs. Theiss, our Junior High Science teacher.  She gives tirelessly to all involved whatever might be necessary for the students to achieve their goals--be it extra lab sessions, help with log keeping, direction on research or general support.  A big thank you to Mrs. Theiss for spearheading the Science Fair every year--what a job! 
 
Congratulations to ALL our students in BOTH grades for doing such a fine job participating in the Science Fair this year!
The winners are posted below with their topic of research. 

8th Grade Winners
1st Place
 Real or Fake: Do Natural Remedies Contain Antibiotic Properties?
 ~Ines Moreno-Olivares

 2nd Place
 Stealth Mode-The Lightbox Experiment
 ~ Luke Sosa, Marco Radeljic, Aiden Clemente

 3rd Place
 Chewing on Plastic: Can Organic Gum Replace Plastic-Based Gum?
 ~ Elizabeth Cerulli

 4th Place
 Purifying Salt Water with Reverse Osmosis
 ~ Vincent McKenna, Anthony Perruccio, James Rosensteel

 5th Place
 The 5 Second Rule: Can You Eat Food After It Falls On The Cafeteria Floor?
 ~ Emily Mirabella, Lizzie Allan

7th Grade Winners
1st Place
 Streamlining Wind Energy: What is the Best Angle for Windmill Blades
 to be Placed to Maximize Energy Efficiency?
 ~ Kenta Fujii

 2nd Place
 Sunspots: What is their Period of Rotation and How Do they Affect Our Daily Lives?
 ~ Juliana Garcia, Ava Shiri-Garakani

 3rd Place
 The Relationship Between Fertilizer and Algae
 ~ Alanni Smith, Camil Alba

 4th Place
 Gasification: Carbon Negative Fuel
 ~Lachlan McLean, Ryan Wang

 5th Place
 What's Got Your Pulse Racing?
 ~ Sophia Eremita, Tierney Toth-Jamieson