Hundreds of people attended the second annual South Shore Science Festival, which was held Saturday at the Quincy Center for Innovation.
Trista was one of the many middle school children who demonstrated their projects at the second annual South Shore Science Festival, which was held Saturday at the Quincy Innovation Center. About 400 people attended to explore exhibits that were spread across the three floors of the Eastern Nazarene College building.The festival also included adults explaining scientific concepts.Most of the exhibits were hands-on. There were telescopes and microscopes, deer skulls, theremins, earthquake simulations and lectures about global warming.“The purpose of this (festival) is to get the kids to love science and technology by learning the fun side of it,” said Manuel Barroso of Positive Business Consulting Services. “When they come out of here, they’re eager to go on to science, technology and inventions.”
Barroso is one of the four founding members of the South Shore Science Festival organization. The others are Kathy Dullea Hogan of Gateway to Science, Eric Braun of 30hands Learning and Parna Sarkar-Basu of Kaminario.
The founders decided to have children in grades 5 through 8 demonstrate science projects to the younger attendees this year.
Trista Lee, 12, of Quincy showed how changing the length of the PVC pipe affected its pitch and musicality of the trombone she and her project partner made. She also talked about the scientific process used in arriving at the final product.
“We tried different lengths and diameters of PVC pipes to produce the most accurate bass trombone,” she said.
Trista and her partner wanted to produce a cheaper, more durable and lighter instrument.
“We did five trials – three trials being the shorter trombone and two trials being the longer one. We tested them in 2-inch increments on the slide.”
Trista admired other projects that were part of the festival. One of her Central Middle School classmates, Nandan Nair, 11, compared three kinds of vinegar to see which would inflate the largest balloon when combined with baking soda in a water bottle.
“You put vinegar in a bottle and you put baking soda in a balloon,” Nandan said. “It follows something called a neutralization reaction.”
Nandan spoke fluently about that chemical process. He also said he had to overcome nervousness to give the presentation.
Jennifer Castillo of Quincy, who attended the science festival with her husband, Elmer, and their three children, Josue, 6, Eva, 4, and newborn Gabriel, said, “I really liked how you had real scientists explaining and you also had children showing their work.”
She was especially fond of Nandan Nair’s demonstration.
“That can be a model and example for the children visiting,” Castillo said.
Josue said the coolest exhibit he saw involved an hourglass filled with iron shavings. When the hourglass was placed on a magnet, the shavings moved through the glass rapidly and formed different designs, spiking like a hedgehog’s hair.
His sister and father spent a while trying to communicate using a cup-and-string phone.
“Authentic is the word that comes to mind for this experience,” Jennifer Castillo said.
Trista Lee also said she liked an exhibit that showed how changing the diameter of a parachute affected the speed of descent.
She said she planned to be back at the festival next year, with a new project to show.