MANSFIELD, Ohio – Does sugar have a negative effect on our brains? Can you turn milk, potato or corn starch into a biodegradable plastic? Three Mansfield Senior High honor roll students sought to find answers to these questions with their science fair projects this year at the Mansfield Senior High Science Research Day.
Their projects received superior ratings last month, advancing them to the next level at the Mohican District Science Day on Saturday, March 21 at Ashland University. Five students received superior ratings but only three decided to move on to the next competition.
Tenth-grader Olta Toska wanted to see how sugar affected students’ brains while testing. She screened 13 peers who volunteered to ingest 27 grams of sugar prior to taking the controlled exam, which covered math and reading. The 13 students then took the same test three weeks later without a recent sugar binge.
“The test scores without the sugar were higher,” said Toska. “Sugar can effect the brain. I liked that I could show that sugar really could have an effect on our thinking.”
Anastasia Axiopoulos and Jonathan Willey had similar projects. Willey attempted to turn milk into plastic. Axiopoulos did too, but also used corn starch and potato starch. She also attempted to see which one decomposed the fastest.
Willey, a tenth-grader, said he first became interested in this project after searching online. “It sounded cool,” he said.
Willey explained the method used in creating plastic out of milk. “It’s called casein plastic. I used vinegar, milk and glycerin. The vinegar unfolds the casein chains and the glycerin makes the milk hard.”
Casein is the protein that amounts to nearly 80 percent of cow’s milk. It is also found in lesser amounts in other mammalian milks.
Willey added, “I learned that it’s better to use biodegradable plastics because it’s safer for the environment, especially for landfills. It’s more natural, I mean, it (the milk) comes from cows.”
Axiopoulos, also a tenth-grader, created plastic out of milk, corn starch and potato starch. Additionally, she decomposed her plastics for 30 days in water and soil.
“Water increased decomposition process for all three [plastics],” said Axiopoulos. And, she added, milk plastic was the fastest to decompose.
The students presented their projects at the school’s Science Research Day on Wednesday, Feb. 25. According to Science Teacher and Science Fair Director Phyllis Randall, there were 34 submissions and around 14 judges.
Some judges were teachers from Mansfield Senior High, others were from the community. Randall explained students are scored on a 1 to 10 range on four criteria: Creativity, Use of Scientific Method, Originality, and Background Research. To receive a superior rating, the student must score a 36 or higher.
“I was really pleased with the turn out with the amount of snow days we had,” said Randall. She explained that the original date was Monday, Feb. 23, but the district had a snow day that day, so they moved it to Tuesday, which was also a snow day. Finally, Wednesday worked. “They had to be self-motivated to be ready to present. And they were very well spoken, able to explain their project, we didn’t have to pull it out of them,” she said.
The three students will present their projects and findings at the Mohican District Science Day on Saturday, March 21 at Ashland University.
