By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

STUDENTS at Garapan Elementary School showed their creativity and resourcefulness yesterday as they demonstrated the various characteristics of coins.
Held in the cafeteria, the event was the school’s first competitive science fair involving all grade levels.
The school used to have mini-science fairs every year, but these were limited to classroom settings at every grade level.
Yesterday’s exhibit is in celebration of Science and Math Month at GES.
“This is the first time that the school has held it as a competition and had it here in the cafeteria,” sixth grade teacher Randy Maderal said.
He added that the competition aims to promote science and math awareness among students by strengthening their creativity, and improving their skills in presenting the data and results.
Maderal’s class entered two exhibits on coin pressure as well as on liquids and acids.
“My class showed the judges how they came up with their conclusions and explained their experiment,” he said, adding that he’s very proud of his students.
According to first grade teacher Nikki Shryack, it took her class three weeks to prepare for their demonstration.
“My students are excited about their experiment…they enjoyed learning new things not just by reading about them in their textbooks…but through hands-on activities,” she said.
There were 17 entries in yesterday’s fair: Hot Penny, Energy from the Sun, Pennies and Water, Penny Melting, Coin Pressure, Liquid and Acids, Buoyancy, Copper Plating using Pennies, Cleaning Solution, Cleaning Pennies with Fruit Juices, Pennies of Different Colors, Weighted Coin Project, Money in the Jar, How to turn a rusted Penny to a shiny new-looking Penny, Lin-Cohesion, Little Coin, and Rising Coin.
Among yesterday’s judges were Public School System federal programs officer Tim Thornburgh and Mariana Islands Nature Alliance executive director Angelo O. Villagomez.