Four Mansfield Senior students were winners in the State Science Day in May. Alexia Kemerling, Grace Haring, Emily Wooten and Anastasia Axiopoulos represented Mansfield Senior on May 10.
All four advanced from the Senior High science fair in February to the Mohican District Science Day at Ashland University in March. Judges there sent them on to the State Science Day, sponsored by The Ohio Academy of Science on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus.
The four projects were:
Alexia Kemerling – “The effect of music on Alzheimer’s”
Kemerling’s “superior” rating included the $500 first-place Future Physician Award from the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health.
“My grandmother had Alzheimer’s for three years. When we started playing music that we knew she liked we saw that it helped,” said Kemerling, who plans a career in geriatric medicine. “My project focused on improving music therapy methods.”
Kemerling noted that nursing homes often provide music for Alzheimer’s patients but it is the same music for everyone. She theorized that music that was personalized would be more beneficial.
“I worked with the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio and met with the families of nursing home residents to determine the music that individual patients had preferred,” she said. “I then played music that was familiar to patients and music that was unfamiliar.”
Familiar music produced positive behavioral responses, Kemerling said.
“I observed improvements in posture and anxiety levels,” she said. “I believe that iPads or CD players in individual rooms could be more effective.”
Emily Wooten – “Blowing in the wind”
Wooten, a junior, earned judges’ “excellent” rating by demonstrating a better way to design the blades on wind turbines.
“When I looked at a wind turbine I thought a different shape of the blades could possibly help generate more electricity,” she said.
To test her theory, Wooten constructed a 3-foot-tall model turbine from PCV pipe and wood. Wind was created by a box fan turned on high and placed about a foot away.
“I used three different blade styles, based on the Bernoulli curve,” she said, explaining that changes of as little as two centimeters made a difference. “I got one of those little car motors from a hobby shop which showed me how many volts each design produced. I recorded the highest voltage.”
Anastasia Axiopoulos – “Writing vs. typing”
Axiopoulos’ objective was to determine which method is best for retaining information. Judges said the freshman deserved an “excellent” rating for demonstrating that writing wins out.
“While technology is improving, is it really better as far as what we remember?” Axiopoulos asked.
To find out, she created 10 sentences containing information and asked 12 students to write them. She then created 10 different informational sentences and asked the students to type them.
“A few days later I asked each student what they remembered about the sentences,” Axiopoulos said. “They remembered about 22 percent more about the written sentences than the sentences they typed. Typing was faster; it involves muscle memory. Writing involves motor memory; it takes longer but more is retained.
“If I have a project, I will type it. But if I’m being tested on it, I will write it out,” she said.
Grace Haring – “Brain Blast: Does NeuroSonic really work?”
Haring, a sophomore, set out to test the energy drink’s claims that it “increases high-level mental functioning: better memory, alertness and concentration.” Her work earned a “good” rating from judges and third place for the Nestle Product Research Award.
“NeuroSonic claims to support memory focus and concentration. I thought: Is it not like other energy drinks?” Haring said. “I started by researching its ingredients, which include caffeine, Alpha GPC and amino acids.”
She developed two different tests. The first, a variation of the Stroop Test, lists the names of colors but in different colors on a blank background. For example, “red” might be printed in yellow. Asked to identify the word “red,” a test-taker might respond by saying “yellow.”
“The second test of short-term memory was nine easily identifiable objects the subjects were asked to study then try to recall later,” Haring said.
A group of 10 subjects took both tests, then took a different set of tests later after drinking NeuroSonic slowly over several minutes. The drink appeared to improve results at least slightly.
“The results for some were the same but most improved after drinking NeuroSonic. They got at least one more right,” Haring said.
