What uses more water, a two-minute shower or bath? Can you make Rice Rice Krispies jump?

These are some of the questions students at the Division Street Elementary School wanted to know and found out.

The school’s gymnasium was filled with more than 150 science fair projects this past week. Joe Tyler helps coordinate the school’s fifth annual Science Fair.

Tyler said it is run in two steps. First, each student comes up with a question, makes a hypothesis or guess and carries out a project to see if the result matches.

“It’s really formed around the scientific method,” he said. “The students are the scientists.”

The second step is presenting the results to the rest of the school.

He said the students, ranging from kindergarten to fifth-grade, come up with their own ideas for the projects and don’t get them out of a book.

“The variety of experiments are amazing,” Tyler said.

He said some of the students ask  questions like if it matters how expensive something like flour is and if that makes a cookie taste better or what type of battery lasts the longest in a common flashlight.

“I like it when they come in and get to talk about their project,” he said. “They have a lot of knowledge about their project.”

He said this isn’t a project for the parents, but sometimes they do have to help a bit.

Tyler said the science fair is completely voluntary and the students don’t get any extra credit for participating.

“It is fulfilling seeing so many kids getting excited about the science fair,” he said. “I’m very proud of the kids for putting in the extra effort. They do this for fun.”

Madison Livingston, a fifth-grader, said her favorite subject is science and that is why she participates in the fair.

Livingston said she and her friend used different ingredients to see if they could turn a liquid into a solid and how it worked.

“It was fun,” Livingston said.

Max Lynch, a fifth-grader, chose to experiment and see what used more water – a two-minute shower or a two-minute bath.

Lynch said he plugged the bath tub and timed a two-minute shower. He then marked the level with tape and measured how many cups of water he took out. Next, Lynch filled the tub for a bath, marked it and removed the water cup by cup.

This was Lynch’s fifth year participating in the science fair.

“Doing the experiment is the best part,” he said. “It is fun and you learn a lot.” 

Tyler said his first child went to school at Division Street and when he went to a Parent Teacher Association event five years ago, he realized there wasn’t a science fair. Tyler, an engineer, said he helped coordinate the first fair and it’s grown tremendously.

“The first year we only used half the gym,” he said.

This year, 14 fifth-graders were recognized with medals for participating in the science fair for three years in a row, though a few took part all five years.

As a parent with a second-grader participating in the science fair, Tyler said it is good to see her creativity with her project.

“Her experiment was to see what was the loudest thing in the house,” he said. “Her conclusion was her.”

Tyler said the idea came from him and his wife asking their daughter to turn down the television.

His daughter compared the door slamming, smoke detector, garage door and her.