MalahatTwo7
04-11-2005, 03:52 PM
Budding scientists demonstrate wide array of interests
Norman Gidney Times Colonist April 11, 2005
Is dog slobber dirtier than human spit or do people have more bugs in their mouths than canines?
The question intrigued Grade 5 student Madelyn Cain from Pacific Christian school in Saanich.
Her research comparing saliva from eight friends and family members and eight dogs, including her own rat terrier Patch, found that, yes, it's OK to kiss your dog.
Or at least, you might catch fewer bacteria than kissing a human acquaintance.
"I found out the dog's mouth was cleaner," said Cain on Sunday, explaining her methodology of gathering samples, then dabbing them on gelatin in petri dishes.
She observed what grew over the next 15 days and found the dog samples grew fewer and smaller moulds. "There must have been something in their mouths that kills germs."
The title of her school project, Pooch Smooch, was among 111 entries from students in Grades 4 through 12, at the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair on the weekend at the University of Victoria. Five winners will be announced today, who advance to the national championship in Vancouver in May.
The local science fair has been going since the 1960s and entries are among the highest in B.C., said organizer Karen Drysdale, a UVic lab instructor.
"It's amazing to me the level they're at and what they're capable of," she said.
This year's crop of young scientists produced some sophisticated work, she said, including projects on gene DNA sequencing, tsunami simulations and lots of alternative energy experiments.
Grade 9 student Jeremy Plouffe of Ecole Broduer sat beside an aquarium filled with wet sand and seawater dug up at Willows Beach, studded with electrodes and wires.
He explained it was a demonstration of the electricity-generating ability of bacterium rhodoferax ferrireducem. An ampmeter showed they were putting out a steady 10 milliamps -- not enough to turn on even a small lightbulb, but given enough electrodes and a big enough beach, a potential source of electricity.
There was a practical inventor at the fair, with a big bag of blocks of cheddar which he invited passersby to use on his new and improved cheese grater that needs only one hand to work.
"I designed it but I got my dad to fabricate it," said Mill Bay student Ben Morton-Coray of his stainless steel device. It has a C-clamp to fix it firmly to a table or countertop and a tray to hold the grated cheese. He said he has an Australian patent pending, and hopes to sign a licensing agreement.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2005
Norman Gidney Times Colonist April 11, 2005
Is dog slobber dirtier than human spit or do people have more bugs in their mouths than canines?
The question intrigued Grade 5 student Madelyn Cain from Pacific Christian school in Saanich.
Her research comparing saliva from eight friends and family members and eight dogs, including her own rat terrier Patch, found that, yes, it's OK to kiss your dog.
Or at least, you might catch fewer bacteria than kissing a human acquaintance.
"I found out the dog's mouth was cleaner," said Cain on Sunday, explaining her methodology of gathering samples, then dabbing them on gelatin in petri dishes.
She observed what grew over the next 15 days and found the dog samples grew fewer and smaller moulds. "There must have been something in their mouths that kills germs."
The title of her school project, Pooch Smooch, was among 111 entries from students in Grades 4 through 12, at the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair on the weekend at the University of Victoria. Five winners will be announced today, who advance to the national championship in Vancouver in May.
The local science fair has been going since the 1960s and entries are among the highest in B.C., said organizer Karen Drysdale, a UVic lab instructor.
"It's amazing to me the level they're at and what they're capable of," she said.
This year's crop of young scientists produced some sophisticated work, she said, including projects on gene DNA sequencing, tsunami simulations and lots of alternative energy experiments.
Grade 9 student Jeremy Plouffe of Ecole Broduer sat beside an aquarium filled with wet sand and seawater dug up at Willows Beach, studded with electrodes and wires.
He explained it was a demonstration of the electricity-generating ability of bacterium rhodoferax ferrireducem. An ampmeter showed they were putting out a steady 10 milliamps -- not enough to turn on even a small lightbulb, but given enough electrodes and a big enough beach, a potential source of electricity.
There was a practical inventor at the fair, with a big bag of blocks of cheddar which he invited passersby to use on his new and improved cheese grater that needs only one hand to work.
"I designed it but I got my dad to fabricate it," said Mill Bay student Ben Morton-Coray of his stainless steel device. It has a C-clamp to fix it firmly to a table or countertop and a tray to hold the grated cheese. He said he has an Australian patent pending, and hopes to sign a licensing agreement.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2005