Argonaut Elementary School's recent science fair included these ingenious project topics, thought up by kindergarten through fifth-graders at the school.

"I was thoroughly impressed," said Alex Chapman, K-5 science coordinator for the Saratoga Union School District. The experiments at the Feb. 27 event "were definitely student-generated projects and not parent-generated projects," Chapman said, explaining that it was evident in the way students answered questions, explained the project creation processes and demonstrated their work.

The fair exceeded organizers' expectations, with more than 120 projects presented at the event. "Based on the number of participants and the number of people who came that night, we felt it was a huge success," Chapman said.

The event even impressed some students who chose not to enter projects. "They realized what a great experience it was," Chapman said, and decided to join the event next year.

Students were allowed time to present their projects and were given certificates at the end of the evening.

The science fair was Argonaut's first in several years. According to event co-chairwoman Priti Dugar, Argonaut had had a science fair before but put the event on hold when construction caused the school to temporarily lose its cafeteria.

"In the Saratoga community, there are a lot of science-minded people," Chapman explained. The community interest, combined with the organizational talent of Dugar and co-chairwoman Mimi Rea, set the ball rolling for this year's science fair.

"Our main goal was to make it fun for the kids and have kid-oriented experiments," Rea said.

Chapman worked with Rea, Dugar and school staff in the planning process, coming up with sample project ideas that were appropriate for elementary school students—"just to give some avenues, drop some ideas that kids could run with," Chapman said.

The group also decided to not have a contest at the fair. "At an elementary school, eliminating the competitiveness, you wouldn't be taking anything away," Chapman said, adding that it decreased the chance of parents doing the project for their children.

"I thought it was a great team effort, with parents and staff working together" with Chapman, said Principal Sue Brooks. Brooks called the end result a collection of "very child-centered projects."

Liz Guy says the fair allowed her children to use a control to test products, which they had never done before.

Guy's fifth-grader, Sarah, created an experiment called, "Which fertilizer works best?" allowing plants to grow for one month in different kinds of fertilizer. Sarah says the fair was "fun" and gave her "some knowledge of what fertilizer to use."

Her younger sister, third-grader Louise, worked on "Which laundry detergent works best?" That project was especially valuable, Louise says, because she has two younger brothers "and they have a lot of shirts with stains and stuff."

The science fair was "fun, and you can see what other people did and sometimes you can learn stuff," Louise said.

Fifth-grader Rishabh Jethanandani conceived of a "lemon power" project. "I created a voltage power with a lemon. It changes chemical energy into electrical energy," Jethanandani said.

His younger brother, kindergartner Mahir, worked with their father, Mahesh, and came up with a dancing raisins experiment that initially failed.

"It was a learning experience for my husband and my son," said Mahir's mother, Pragati Grover. The project worked on the day of the fair, however. "As a result, he did a demo in school for the third-graders," Grover said.

Rea's own daughter Laura, who is in first grade, says her favorite part of science is studying bats. Instead of experimenting with bats, however, Laura's science project involved pennies.

"I mixed vinegar and salt in one jar, and I mixed soap and water in one jar, and I put pennies in the jars and shook them up," Laura explained. The jar with the vinegar and salt mixture cleaned the pennies, while the other did not.

Rea says the coordinators are already planning to hold a science fair at Argonaut next year as the result of the reaction to this year's event.

"We're hoping that the success at Argonaut will help encourage one at another school as well," Chapman said, since not all of the schools in the district hold regular science fairs.

"I thought it was very exciting, and I expect it to grow next year," Brooks said.