One needed CSI at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Okotoks  earlier this month determine a winner at its annual science fair.

However, when the judges had their say they pointed to a pair of winners in the Grade 6 category on Feb. 3. Grant Matheson and Ethan Bertelsen, who focused on fingerprinting, shared the title with Dawson Wade and Jack Elliot whose project was ‘Hmmm, what do I want my teeth to look like?”.

Grant Matheson takes Ethan Bertelsen’s fingerprints at the St. Mary’s School science fair in Okotoks on Feb. 3. The students were co-winners in the Grade 6 category with Dawson Wade and Jack Elliot. photo by Bruce Campbell

Some future studies for Bertelsen and Matheson got them interested in lifting prints.

“We selected fingerprinting because we are going to take forensic science later this year,” Matheson said.

Bertelsen said he found the topic interesting because he watches a lot of CSI on television.
But unlike Gil Grissom of CSI, the St. Mary’s students weren’t trying to lift prints from some weird surface, they went straight to their fellow students.

Pencil was smeared on a piece of paper and then students and the judges were asked to press their fingers on the paper. Bertelsen and Matheson then lifted the prints using a piece of Scotch tape.

On the tape was a fingerprint good enough for Okotoks Crown prosecutor Mac Vomberg to use in court.

The winners said they learned about the different types of fingerprints people have while working on the project.

Down in the mouth

A Grade 6 student took a financial loss to determine what thirst-quencher is hardest on one’s teeth.

Dawson Wade and Jack Elliot shared first place for their exhibit: ‘Hmmm, what do I want my teeth to look like?”

The experiment had the pair putting a tooth in cups of Coca-Cola, Powerade, orange juice, milk and water.

“We both have had problems with cavities so we thought this would be a good experiment,” Dawson said.

The pair then studied the decay of the teeth every other day or so for a couple of months.

Dawson had lost the teeth over the past year and decided to save them rather than stuff them under a pillow waiting for the tooth fairy.

The young boys’ findings were that Powerade caused the most decay. Their hypothesis had been Coca-Cola would cause the most damage.

Water proved to be the most beneficial to the teeth, according to the students.

The experiment has caused a change in Dawson’s drinking habits.

“I plan to drink more orange juice now,” he said.

The science fair exhibits included some offbeat fare as well. There was a “Hoovercraft” in which a young man created a hovercraft with the use of a vacuum cleaner.

Grade 4 students Mitchell Dennis and Luc Thorimbert’s experiment combined candy and soda pop to determine which caused the biggest eruption. The winner hands down was Jones Carbonated Candy with Diet Coke.

“It was like a geyser,” Thorimbert said.

Dennis admitted the findings were overwhelming.

“It was cool to see the explosion,” he said.

But don’t get fooled this was all about science.

“It’s a physical reaction when two different types of carbonation come in contact with each other,” Thorimbert said.

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