Food for science; Banfield student is top third-grader at Minnesota Regional Science Fair
Published 10:22 am Friday, May 23, 2014
Third-grader Cheney Yao won the CSET Southern Regional Young Scientist Award on April 26 at the science fair in Mankato for his project on which type of food keeps flowers alive the longest. — Jenae Peterson/ jenae.peterson@austindailyherald.com
While many think keeping flowers alive is difficult, Banfield Elementary School third-grader Cheney Yao proved it may depend on what type of food the flowers receive.
Cheney, 9, entered the Minnesota Regional Science fair in April, which was held in Mankato, and came out with the Young Scientist Award, which is given to the top third-grade project. He also received a purple ribbon, a certificate and a cash award.
After hearing of the science fair, Cheney’s project idea easily came to him.
“As soon as I went home I saw the categories and when I saw plant sciences, it just clicked into my mind,” Cheney said.
Cheney’s project asked the question: With what food component can flowers survive the best? He filled seven water bottles with three-fourths water and one teaspoon of a type of food component, and each bottle got three carnations. He checked on these water bottles every day for nine to 12 weeks.
“I had to watch it every single day,” Cheney said.
When the results came in, there were two answers: Water with plant food and water with cooking wine.
Cheney was surprised when he won the Young Scientist Award, but he was excited and happy his dad got to see him receive the award.
Cheney said he learned a lot from his parents, who are both scientists.
While Cheney also enjoys math and reading, his current future plans are fairly clear.
“I want to be a scientist,” Cheney said. “I can study science more, maybe [be] a doctor.”
Mandy Leopold, Cheney’s third-grade teacher, was not surprised Cheney won the award.
“He’s a very inquisitive student,” Leopold said. “He had a question that he didn’t know the answer to.”
Banfield third-grader Cheney Yao goes after weeds with classmates outside of the school Thursday. Yao used plants in another way — to win a science fair recently. — Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
She said many students his age choose a question they already know the answer to, like knowing a model volcano will explode with the right ingredients. But Cheney chose something where he didn’t know the outcome. She was also impressed by the way he explained his project in class, explaining each piece, whether it worked, and why.
The science fair is open to grades third through sixth. Judges consist of scientists, engineers and other community members. Students have to be in sixth-grade to go on to nationals, and Cheney said that’s too bad, because he would have enjoyed competing. He plans to enter the science fair again next year and is already coming up with project ideas.
“Maybe what food component can kill [the flowers] the fastest,” Cheney said.
