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Winners display science projects at Children's Museum

"I couldn't be prouder of the Children's Museum for having the vision to put something like this together," Carson City Mayor Ray Masayko told students and parents. 

He said the students also learned an important lesson: "The ability to think independently and to think outside the box is very important for all of us."

That is exactly what fifth-grader Brooks Westergard from St. Teresa School said he learned from his project.

Westergard tested how preconceived notions, or what he calls "set," influenced people's decisions.

"I learned that you have simple choices in life," he said. "I learned that if you avoid 'set,' you make a lot better choices rather than just assuming."

Westergard filled two cups marked A and B with the same brand of club soda and asked students to choose which one tasted better.

Twenty-one of the 23 students tested chose one over the other.

"They had a mind set and they made an error in reasoning," he said. "They were ready to pick a certain one so they didn't spend time reasoning fully."

He said he enjoyed watching his classmates fall into his "trap."

"It was fun to watch them try to figure something out that didn't really need to be figured out."

Robert Collier, dean of science at Western Nevada Community College, said the projects on display were well done.

"It looked to me like the scientific method had been followed," he said. "This is real science here."

Collier said he can still remember his first science project and the confidence it gave him to pursue science. He said confidence is just as important as talent.

"There's some who have all the talent. They just don't have the extra umph to go out there and take the next step," he said. "When you get successful at something and gain confidence in yourself, that can catapult you into something fantastic."

Secretary of State Dean Heller said science fairs have far-reaching effects.

"This is so stimulating and so good for these young kids," he said. "I firmly believe that what you're doing here is creating the future, not just in Carson City but in Nevada, the country and the world."

Schools participating in the citywide festival were Bordewich-Bray, Fremont, Fritsch, Mark Twain, St. Teresa and Seeliger.

Suzi Meehan, museum director, said she hopes it will become an annual event with participation from all of the schools.

"We want to make this the educational center that it used to be," she said. "We'd love to do it with schools from Douglas County and all over."

Eric Anderson, the science coordinator for the district, said he hopes the festival will inspire every school to hold a science fair.

"We want to encourage all the schools to do science fairs," he said. "We think this kind of thing will encourage other students to become involved."

Superintendent Jim Parry said the most important thing students can learn from science is to never stop learning.

"If you were to give me the best compliment it would be 'no matter how old Jim Parry got, he never stopped learning, he never lost that questioning mind,'" he said.

Winners from each school will participate in a regional contest March 16-18 at Lawlor Events Center in Reno.