Water, water all around and not a drop to spare: Bradley Treweek, Jessica Crimp
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
Johnsonville School science fair showcased a fascinating array of investigations into the realm of the useful, wacky and wonderful. The projects were unveiled to parents on the night and were a culmination of an entire terms worth of scientific endeavours. Bradley Treweek and Jessica Crimp investigated different methods of distilling dirty water in order to make clean, drinkable water. ?Our first method was to boil the dirty water, and let it collect on the sides of a plastic bottle and run into a glass. ?It took a lot of time, but the water was cleaner than when we used a cloth as a filter,? said Bradley. Both students are confident science has an important role to play in society, and that water was a vital part of healthy living. ?It could be used in lot of ways, for places that don?t have much clean water,? said Jessica. Pupils from another class, Jonathan MacLean and Tom Excell, took a consumerist approach and looked into which fabrics are the most fire resistant. ?It took 28.87 seconds for the leather to catch fire. ?The leather smelt the worst, very yuck,? said Jonathan. In a first for Plimmerton School, this year they allowed students to choose their own hypothesis, which yielded a wide range of displays. Other student investigations included; the best technique for removing wine stains and a simulated computer-game assisted driving test to see if talking on a mobile phone affected the quality of driving.
