The Districtwide Science Fair named for Terri Peters, a long-time teacher and elementary principal in the district, has grown from about 300 exhibits when it began to 2,180 exhibits this year!
      The excitement and enthusiastic participation in this year's fair is a testament to Mr. Bob Jester, who coordinated the fair and has been acting as a science mentor throughout the district, and the teachers and administrators in each of the district's schools, who encouraged their students to put together an experiment for the fair. Mr. Venezio, the principal at the Pulaski Street School, boasted 680 students participated in this year's fair. (Every time someone would ask him how many students from Pulaski submitted experiments, he would proudly hold up a little yellow piece of paper with 680 written on it.)
     The level of sophistication, investigation and presentation of the exhibits was phenomenal this year. Viewing the exhibits at the fair was a great learning event for those who came to see what the student's had studied. The students, who were present to discuss their experiments, seemed fully engaged in the learning process and proud of what they had accomplished.
     Two little girls from the Phillips Avenue School, hypothesized that a rat on a healthy diet would be more capable at traversing a maze than another rat, who basically ate junk food. Much to their mother's dismay, the rat on junk food moved more quickly through the maze than the well-fed rat. They conjectured "He was more hyper." They did observe, however, that "the well -nourished rat looked better and took better care of himself."
   Brian Tressler, who received a letter from the President of the United States last year for his efforts to put together an experiment in the midst of his struggle against Leukemia, was receiving treatments on the night of the fair and was unable to attend. He did, however, work all year on an experiment on clams that was according to Mr. Jester "PHENOMENAL!" One parent passing the exhibit remarked, "Wow, this is one amazing experiment for a fourth grader!"
      The Rube Goldberg (Physics) entries at the high school level were both clever and more involved than in the past and were as entertaining as they were ingenious. The first place winners in the Rube Goldberg device (Physics) category were Liz Villan, Gary Osarceuk and Larissa Zuhoski for their entry entitled "Bowl of Cereal." Their device not only poured out a bowl of cereal, it also released a flow of milk onto the cereal. One high school boy remarked, "Now if you can get it to perk a cup of coffee, too, you could make a mint!"
     Eileen Belfield and Gina Harrison, ninth graders, won first place at the high school level for building a working solar panel for their experiment. Kelsey McCafferty and Jacqueiline Fusco, also ninth graders, won second place for their demonstration of why the Titanic sunk. They hypothesized that it would not have sunk had it been hit by the iceberg in the front of the boat rather than on the side as it turned.
     The experiments this year filled the gym, flowed out into the hallway, and filled the cafeteria as well, but more importantly, the scientific method seems to have made its way into the very bloodstream of the students in the district, whose enthusiasm for the study of science seems to have been raised to a new level.
     Everyone that entered the science fair this year was deemed to be a winner; however, a few from each school were given the distinction of receiving special recognition. Listed below are the students who received a special honor for their effort:

To this year's photos