THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501170110
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
IT'S NO WONDER Christie Harner won Best in Show at the recent Smithfield Middle School Science Fair.
The 13-year-old eighth-grader has been working on the project for four years.
``I started working with pH in the fourth grade,'' she explained. ``I tested household products for pH. Then I tested different bodies of water in the county - like the Blackwater River - for pH levels. And I worked on a project that had to do with acid rain. Acid rain can damage trees. An entire forest can be wiped out.''
This year, Christie's project - entitled ``So, What's the pH?'' - won first place in the chemistry category and best overall among the more than 200 projects entered into the science fair.
With so much groundwork already completed and so much experience behind her, Christie decided to seek and find the best method to use when checking for pH - known chemically as the hydronium ion concentration, commonly called the acidity level.
Her conclusion was that universal indicator, or litmus, paper is probably the least expensive and easiest way to check the levels, compared to a pH meter, an expensive machine that measures the level in hundredths of degrees.
And she was just lucky, she admitted, that her dad happens to teach marine biology at Denbigh High School and that he was willing to allow her to use the school's meter.
``The paper was the most consistent, and it was definitely the cheapest,'' she said. ``But the pH meter was more accurate.''
Christie said she hopes to add even more information to her knowledge bank of pH expertise next year, when she plans to look into the effect of pH levels on plants and animals living in local waters.
And some day, she said, she may put all of it to work once she graduates from law school and becomes an environmental lawyer.
None of that surprises Harriet Williams, science department chairman at Smithfield Middle and a seventh grade science teacher.
``She's a very good student,'' Williams said. ``She usually starts on her project very early, like in the summer. There is no question this is her work. She has always been very involved in her project development.''
Christie's teacher, Gladys Freeman, is equally impressed.
``The project is very involved for an eighth-grader,'' Freeman said. ``But Christie is very familiar with it.''
Along with other winners in the recent middle school science fair, Christie will go to Christopher Newport University in March to compete in the Tidewater Science Fair. From there, if the local winners continue their streak, they could go on to state competition in April and on to national competition.
Williams said more than 250 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Smithfield Middle participated in the science fair this year, which involved team competition for the first time. No more than three students were allowed on a team.
About 200 projects were judged last week by representatives from schools in Franklin, Suffolk, Surry and Isle of Wight counties, Virginia Beach and from Norfolk State University. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Seventh-grader Jacob Camper works with his Wave Motion project for
the Science Fair at Smithfield Middle School. Jacob took second
place.
SCIENCE FAIR WINNERS
[For a copy of the list, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB