Alabama Science & Engineering Fair returns to UAH for 20th anniversary

Students still want to know how various household chemicals affect plant growth, or whether video games make them and their friends smarter.

These and about 200 other student experiments will be on display Friday, April 3, when the Alabama Science & Engineering Fair returns for its 20th anniversary at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

Students also are testing the effects of temperature change on magnets, or developing a low-cost laser scatterometer that might be used as an inexpensive household air-quality monitor. Spenser Willard, an eighth grader at Grace Lutheran School in Huntsville, tested a sensor that measures movement to see if it might be used to detect when someone falls. (It can.)

And Trisha Agrawal, a seventh grader at Phillips Prep in Mobile, found that a natural chemical produced by the roots of black walnut trees can be used in the place of chemical herbicides to inhibit the growth of kudzu.

Judging is scheduled for Friday, with public viewing of the projects beginning at 3 p.m. For more information about the schedule, go to asef.uah.edu.

Students come from most parts of the state. Students with the best projects can win UAH scholarships, while four projects and their student scientists will win a trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May in Pittsburgh.

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