Manhattan Beach Middle School students attend science fair
by Fiona Stenton
Manhattan Beach Police Officer Jennifer Ringler shows students how to lift a finger print using tape and a magnetic powder. Photo by Fiona Stenton
A group of Manhattan Beach Middle School students huddled around a poster board on Friday, on which four wanted posters with mug shots were pasted.
“We’re in the Crime Lab and guess what? Someone stole Mr. Jackson’s iPad,” said middle school parent Janet Soliman-Suard to the group of students. With a folder of evidence in hand, each student set out to solve the fictional crime by blood typing and analyzing shoe prints, finger prints, and strands of hair.
Students experiment with Mentos and diet coke at the Time Warner Cable Science Fair at Manhattan Beach Middle School. Photo by Fiona Stenton
The crime lab was just one of many booths set up at Friday’s Science Fair at Manhattan Beach Middle School, hosted by Time Warner Cable and the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation. The event was part of Time Warner’s five-year $100 million initiative, Connect a Million Minds, to increase science, technology, engineering and math education for youth.
Jane Fishman stamps her finger prints onto a piece of paper at the Time Warner Cable Science Fair at Manhattan Beach Middle School. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian
Across the room, Manhattan Beach Police Officer Jennifer Ringler demonstrated finger printing to students Jane Fishman and Jackie Soliman. Both students purposefully left their finger prints on a CD and later used lifting tape to examine their finger prints.
“Use the magnifying glass to see how well you can see it,” Ringler told the students.
Later, the students stamped each of their fingers in ink to then press onto a piece of paper.
“Every finger print is different, that’s the one scientific thing I know,” Fishman said.
Other activities at the fair included designing a fireworks show on an iPad application, designing shoes with decorative duct tape, and coloring the pavement with chalk. Boeing held a presentation on how to use math while operating a catapult. Tutoring company Study Hut explained the physics behind archery to students using the Hunger Games. Students were given bows and arrows and had to shoot a bull’s eye to win candy.