Hopson Middle School scientists study bowhead whales and lava lamps, compare clams to humans, make music with glasses, examine declining permafrost and make tea

Okay - I now have enough information to finalize my post on the young scientists from Barrow's Hopson Middle School who participated in the Alaska Science & Engineering Fair, held at Begich Middle School in Anchorage.

I begin with Molly Adams, who studied the bowhead whale and received an award for her work.

Molly posed the question, "why do bowhead whales float when harpooned?"

She advanced this hypothesis: "I think whales will float when harpooned because water is more dense than the whale. I know this because harpooned whales float. The whalers only put one float on the whale to keep it up when they harpoon it because of all the blubber."

She conducted experiments in which she floated blubber in different mixtures of water mixed with sodium chloride (table salt), baking soda, epsom salt and just plain tap water.

In all these cases, the blubber floated.

Trenton Sovalik likes to watch the mysterious colored globules inside a lava lamp float up, sink, float up, sink and just keep doing it over and over - but he did not why it happened. So he made lava lamps in three bottles to find out.  He mixed oil, water, food coloring and salt together and applied heat to the bottom. 

He determined that when the oil is close to the heat source it expands, becomes less dense and rises to the top. There, it cools, sinks toward the bottom, turning wax-like, then heats up and the process repeats itself.

Emily Brower loves music, so she made her own musical instruments out of bottles. She found that she could control the pitch each bottle would ring at when struck by filling each bottle with a different level of water.

Update: I have just learned that today is Emily's birthday. I don't which birthday, but as soon as I find out, I will add it in. 

Happy birthday, Emily!

Randy Patkotak explored the impacts of global warming on permafrost and discovered that the permafrost is shrinking.

Nicole Anderson's project was "Clams vs. Humans" and she worked off the hypothesis that "the muscles of a clam will be similar to the muscles of a human."

To find out if these was indeed the case, "we used a standard clam and a standard human. We then precided to compare and contrast their muscles."

To accomplish this, it was necessary to engage in a little dissection work, so she had to get out her dissecting knife, scissors and screwdriver and then start cutting and dissecting...

...clams, that is. Nicole dissected clams... to do her study of human muscles, she went to the internet.

Her analysis revealed that "the muscles in a clam and human help them move. The clam and human muscles give them strength. The muscles in the clam and human are strong in the body."

Nicole's conclusion:

"There are similarities and difference between clams and humans. Both have muscles. Humans have over 500 muscles and clams have three main muscles."

Ariana Salamat loves tea and did a study of tea and how sugar dissolves in. I am not certain what all she discovered, but I agree with her - tea is good.

View images as slides (includes high school scientists from yesterday)

Barrow High Science students examine topics from the effects of oil upon seal fur to the diets of Arctic fish

Even as the Barrow Lady Whalers were battling their way through the final game of the 3A tournament, another group of Barrow youth were engaged in a statewide competition held in Anchorage. These were bright students from Barrow High and Hopson Middle schools who had come down to compete in the Alaska Science & Engineering Fair, held at Begich Middle School.

Their competition started early in the morning and lasted until evening. I attended portains that took place both before and after the girls game.

This competition does not attract the same kind of crowds as does basketball nor does it bring its participants the same high degree of recognition.

But do not doubt the importance of it. It was good science, instigated by Iñupiat whaler hunters, that gave the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission the scientific data necessary to refute the inadequately researched information that the International Whaling Commission used in 1977 to try to put an end to the bowhead hunt.

Because the Iñupiat were able to teach scientists how to incorporate their traditional knowledge into their research and to improve their methods, the bowhead hunt is doing well today - as are the bowhead.

Now, with the Arctic taking the advance brunt of global warming, with potentially heavy oil exploration looming in both the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and ever more development on land that can impact the rivers and lakes, the importance of science to the Arctic and its people only grows.

This is Jadyn Edwardsen-Harrington with her project on caribou sinew, which she chose because "I am interested in things that were made by my ancestors."

In her project, she explained that sinew "has played an important part in the Iñupiaq's survival kit. It has been around for more than a thousands of years in Alaska's Arctic. Sinew is a type of thread ancient Eskimos used before store bought thread was invented." 

She tested the strength of sinew compared to dental floss, and with different treatments using whale blubber and beeswax. "If I can discover the strength of sinew," she stated, "it may be easier for people to sew with. I think that whale blubber will cause the sinew to work stronger after it has been prepared."

The more homegrown scientists, the better.

Jadyn and some of the students here just may prove to be the ones the Arctic will need in the future.

The importance of the topic Ben Voss chose to study will be obvious to anyone familiar with Alaska's Arctic. 

Ben posed the question, "will oil cause animal fur to lose its ability to insulate? As oil drilling steadily approaches into the Arctic Ocean it seems that the answer is becoming increasingly important in the face of an oil spill. This relevant question became very interesting to me as I heard more and more about the likelihood of Arctic oil drilling.

"I believe that if an animal's fur is contaminated by oil it will be less insulated than clean animal fur."

Ben conducted his test on strips of seal fur that he obtained from an Iñupiat friend who hunts. He conducted conducted various tests that included applying oil to the strips. Among other things, he found that the oil penetrated all the way through the fur and to the inside of the skin.

He also did a good deal of reading as he researched the impact of past oil spills, such as the Exxon Valdez and the BP Gulf of Mexico. Among his many findings:

"An oil spill has potential to cause great amounts of damage to animals and the environment and people involved in the clean up efforts. Oil when mixed with water creates a sticky black tar known as mousse, which sticks to any substance it comes in contact with. Most marine animals can't avoid an oil slick and when they become coated in mouse their fur begins to lose it's insulation properties and many animals perish due to hypothermia.

"Oil can also be absorbed through the animals skin, which slowly poisons it. In seals, oil destroys their fur and damages their insulating layer of blubber."

Stephanie Talbert's family has been eating fish since antiquity and still do, so Stephanie decided that she would like to know what the fish eat. She did some reading and research on the diets of white fish and least cisco and then hypothesized that the fish dined primarily upon snails, and that they did not eat eggs or rocks.

Starting with three white fish, she then conducted her own research. Using an ulu, she cut off their head and dissected them, opening up their stomachs and intestines to see what they had been eating. She then did the same with four least cisco, or Iqalusaaq. 

What she found was that in both cases, her hypothesis had been wrong.

"The male whitefish ate eggs and rocks and the females only ate eggs. I think that my project was awesome," she stated in her conclusion," I learned a lot of new things about the two types of fish I observed. I learned that the whitefish either eats other fish eggs or their own. Also, the least cisco east eggs and has smaller stomachs than whitefish, because it is smaller. I also learned to gut fish. I didn't know how before the experiment.

"I think that it is important to know how to gut fish because my family members do and I can now carry on the past of my culture." 

Okay... now it is getting late in the day and I need to get this post up and go on to other things. So I think I will let the above three serve as examples of the efforts the student put into their project and out of necessity and not to lessen any of the accomplishments of those that follow I will hurry along.

Joe Martelle studied insulation and examined the best, most economical ways to stay warm in the Arctic.

In Barrow and the villages of the Arctic Slope, this is vital knowledge, for certain.

In her Oil Dispersants project, Svetlana Terzioski studied the challenges of removing spilled oil from the oceans.

Billy Thompson looked into wind generated energy in his windmill project. 

In "Food Preservatives," Alaina Bankston studied bacterial growth.

Elmer Thompson took a look at "Electromagnestism."

Inspired by television shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Victoria Codamon studied forensic crime investigation in her project, "Who did it: DNA CSI."

Chan Chroonsophonsak did an examination of "Igloo vs. Snowpit."

During the many hours that the students spent with their exhibits, a variety of judges wandered by. The judges would often stop, study their projects and then grill them with questions - sometimes tough ones. 

Alaina Bankston answers tough questions posed by judge Tom Hennessy.

For her work dissecting and learning about the eating habits of whitefish and least Cisco, Stephanie Talbert received the Alaska Fly Fishers Annual Award of Merit. The award is given to "students whose projects best contribute to our knowledge of fish and their habitats. We feel that your entry was clearly deserving of this award."

The award included a $100 savings bond.

Other special recognition awards going to Barrow High students included:

Billy Thompson: a backpack from the US Air Force.

Svetlana Terzioski: U.S. Metric Association "Best Use of the International System of Units."

Chan Chroonsophonsak: Alaska Professional Communicators Honorable Mention for Best Abstract.

Jadyn Edwardsen-Harrington: U.S. Army ($50), Marine Mammals of Alaska Book and COSAA Notebook.

Elmer Thompson: U.S. Army ($50).

Ben Voss: U.S. Army ($50).

Ben Voss: AK Science Teachers Association (Flash Drive).

It is not yet known if any of the Barrow students placed first, second, or third in their categories, as they had to board their plane back to Barrow before the ribbons were given out.

Congratulations must also go to science teacher Emily Rosenberry, who is also Iñupiat. It was she who taught and prepared the students. She also received help from her husband, Mark, at right. Both served as Chaperones.

I originally intended to also include the Hopson Middle School science fair participants in this post, but I am missing some vital information that I must have first. Once I get it, I will post the Middle School participants. Anyone who wants can take a preview peek at their pictures as they are included in the slide show linked below:

View images as slides

The battle was fought and Liberty came out dancing; the Escape gets serviced, but I don't get a Pepsi; A crime scene - scenes of Spring

While our new Escape was undergoing it's 5000 mile free service - basically, an oil change - I wandered on foot a short distance down the road to take a picture of this kid who was dancing on the side of the highway in the hope of luring customers into Liberty Tax Service before the impending deadline, just eight days hence.

He is CJ and he has been dancing out there for about five hours a day since January. He has danced when the temperature was far below zero and now he was dancing on the warmest day so far this spring - the high temperature was close to 45, although when I first set out this morning it was 26.

CJ was friendly and polite, and tried to answer my questions, but he was also dedicated to his job and was determined to not let a single vehicle pass by without dancing, waving and smiling at the occupants.

In return, many people honked and shouted back greetings. This would cause him to dance even harder and smile bigger.

"Anyone ever shout anything mean at you?" I asked.

"Yeah," he answered, "but it doesn't bother me."

I then walked back to Kendall Ford. The car was still being serviced, so I took a seat in the waiting room, where I could see through this big window into the shop. I know things are tough for the car companies, but, from this vantage point, it did not show.

There were some vending machines in the room, so I decided to get a Pepsi to make my stay a little more pleasant. They did not have Pepsi. They only had Coke.

I don't like Coke.

Some say there is no difference. But they are wrong. There is a huge difference.

I don't like Coke.

When the work was done, Brad Tidwell, Kendall Service Consultant, came in to go over the paperwork and show me all that was done. He also showed me a survey form that he said Ford will send to me.

The first question will ask how satisfied I was, starting with, "Completely Satisfied," "Very Satisfied" on down through a total of five steps to enraged dissatisfaction.

He wondered how satisfied I was. I was satisfied, I said. He said that Ford only gives him and the service staff two grades regarding that question, "A" & "F". Completely satisfied is an "A", "Very Satisfied" is an "F."

He hoped I was completely satisfied.

I didn't feel any dissatisfaction. 

I reckon I'll check "completely." I don't want the poor guy to get an "F."

I sure wish I could have got a Pepsi, though.

Brad, I'll give you a pass on that one this time, but that might be something to think about by the time I come in for my 10,000 mile service. To completely satisfy this customer, you must get Pepsi. I want a Pepsi!

Especially on a hot day like today - and it's only going to get hotter.

As I drove away in my newly serviced car, undamaged by the ash fall, CJ waved at me and smiled. I wonder if he knew it was me?

Liberty Tax used to be in another location, down the hill, near Wasilla Lake. Down there, the dancers used to not only dance beside the highway but wave signs, too. Then, one day, I came by and they were not dancing by the highway. They were standing in the parking lot, looking forlorn.

And there they stayed, for days, for weeks... in the parking lot.

I talked to the owner, Chris Cork, who graduated from Wasilla High with Caleb. He told me that a competitor who had no dancers himself and did not like the Liberty dancers had raised hell and had come up with some kind of Wasilla law from somewhere that prohibited a business in the city from putting dancers carrying signs at the side of the road.

That state of affairs persisted for a couple of years and then, all of sudden, at this new location, the dancers again began to perform at the side of the road.

But without signs.

Chris got some attorneys of his own and they raised their own hell. Turned out, if they were going to bar the Liberty dancers from the side of the road, they must also bar all the other people who dance and wave from the highway's edge - like those who jumped up and down for both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin last fall, those who shout out for Christ and the Little League and hockey players who seek to entice motorists with dirty cars to their fundraiser washes.

So the Liberty Tax dancers are back, but without signs.

Yet, the political boosters, Christians, Little Leaguers and others do carry signs.

A bit further down the road, I passed a crime scene.

I wonder what crime was committed? I have seen nothing on the news. I have looked at the Mat-Su section of the continually-updated, online edition of the Anchorage Daily News.

No information. Still, when an entire parking lot is cordoned off and two theodolites put into action, whatever it was, someone is taking it pretty seriously.

I could have called the police station, or stopped and asked to interview somebody. But I don't have time for that.

One block away from the crime scene, a girl rode a bike around a corner. Look how the snow has melted in downtown Wasilla.

Later, I ventured out again, to get coffee for Margie and me. School had just let out. Kids were walking away from Wasilla Middle School, just like my kids used to do.

You can see that the snow is melting more slowly in our neighborhood then in downtown Wasilla - if there is such a thing as downtown Wasilla. There is a street called Main Street, but the name is basically a fiction. I don't care who says otherwise. Yes, there is some wisdom on this street with the fictitious name, but there's a lot of foolishness, too.

Looks like we are going to need to do some spring cleaning. I'm a bit vexed with that water heater that we just replaced. I don't know how to get rid of it. 

We will find a way.