. 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 5 years ago to over 2,000 exhibits this year!
      "The Science Fair is a huge undertaking, but I think it's an important event for the kids and the community," noted RHS physics teacher Gregory Wallace, who was this year's coordinator.
     The enthusiasm for this event has grown with the years, and this year there were a few new additions to the fair. The AP Chemistry class ran a game area whereby students rolled a big dice and then had to answer a question correctly to move around the game board. The AP Physics students also had their prize winning pumpkin catapult from the Yaphank Farm Catapult Contest on display. Cornell Cooperative Extension's Marine Division had a display at the fair, and, as usual, the members of the Science Club conducted a 50-50 raffle and helped set up and take down the displays.
     Prior to the fair, students at the Phillips Avenue School had an opportunity to confer with science teacher Madelyn Asperas from the LI ScienCenter about their topics and receive a free display board at their school's Family Science Night.
     The level of sophistication, investigation and presentation of the exhibits was excellent once again this year. Viewing the exhibits at the fair was also a great learning event and a lot of fun for those who came to see what the student's had investigated.
     There were exhibits from almost every student in the school and the theme revolved around the use of the Scientific Method. Everyone received a certificate of participation and presented their experiments to the members of their class.
     A Kindergartener, whose experiment somehow got left behind, took her presentation on the road the day after the fair and gave a presentation to the other Kindergarten classes. She had hypothesized that the boys she used as a study group would be taller and heavier than the girls, but her data proved her wrong. The boys were taller, but the girls were heavier.
      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. One of the devices pulled up the curtain on a Jimmy Hendrix concert. The first place winners in this category (Physics-Rube Goldberg) were: Mark Ahrens/Peter Falango/Vinny Diresta/John Gerle/Glen Schunk, whose exhibit, after a number of maneuvers, rang a bell. The Earth Science Rube Goldberg winners were Hal Goodale and Danny Kent, whose device tripped a Polaroid camera and turned on a disc player that played "Shake It Like A Polaroid Picture."
    Other exhibits tested batteries, polled girls on the types of guys they preferred, tested software speeds, checked the effect of a variety of drinks on the growth of grass, determined the best sticking band-aid (Active Waterproof), and proved the harmful effect of caffeine on your kidneys and Coca Cola's effect on your teeth.
     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 is a slide show and a listing of the students who received special recognition for their effort.

To this year's photos                 List of this year's WINNERS: