Desert High School students host science fair exhibit

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  • By Airman 1st Class Julius Delos Reyes
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  When two Desert High School seniors were tasked to come up with a project for their school's science fair, they came up with something they were both interested in.

Robert Thurman and Keith Heims, both DHS seniors, both agreed to study basketball free throws.

"Basically, we are trying to test whether cross hand and eye dominance would determine how well someone would shoot a free throw," Robert said. "We are trying to prove that someone who has right hand and left eye dominance or left hand and right eye dominance has a better free throw percentage than someone with same side dominance."

Robert and Keith's project is just one of the 115 research studies featured during the school's science fair Feb. 16. About 20 science fair projects were chosen to represent Desert High School at the Kern County Science Fair.

"Science fairs make students think and produce products," said Debbie Lewis, DHS anatomy and physiology teacher.

The science fair projects included studies on different fields such as biology, physics and chemistry.

"It is interesting to research on your own and try to learn more about the world outside rather than reading about it in science books," Keith said. "We worked pretty hard for this and it feels good that our hard work paid off."

Coming up with school projects or ideas takes effort and research, Ms. Lewis said.

Molly Shanks, and her teammate Danielle Sanfilippo, both seniors, read an article about a group of people in Turkey who have a genetic abnormality enabling them to walk with their hands and feet.

"It's a lot of hard work," Molly said. "You have to come up with a project that you can see from start to finish. You have to come up with an idea, figure out every step involved, manage your time, get everything done and make sure you don't miss anything."

Edwards offers a lot of facilities or organizations that students can inquire about such as Environmental Management, Ms. Lewis said. But the hardest part is finding a topic.

"We try to cut ideas that we have seen so many times, such as an erupting volcano," Ms. Lewis said. "This must be a test grade for our biology, chemistry and physics classes. We clear them after Thanksgiving. If they are too easy, we say no."

All the students can participate but the science fair is not categorized by grade level, she said. In fact, some of the projects that are going to Kern County Science Fair are from freshmen and sophomores.

"Science fairs are important," Ms. Lewis said. "Science changes so much because of new technology. With science fairs, students think and produce products on their own."