Cats potentially relax when they hear heavy metal music. Toothpaste can remove nail polish. Older people do not always have slower reaction times. Juice has more sugar than lemonade.
These are just some of the findings made by school pupils competing in the Midlands Science Fair at the Sinclair Centre this week.
The fair is hosted by Te Kahui Ako o Hakatere which is a collective of 13 Mid Canterbury’s schools.
More than 130 research projects were under taken, in which pupils delved in to all manner of fascinating topics.
The fair sees the research projects presented to judges and the public in the form of project boards.
One of the project boards features a feline experimental subject named Coco. It reveals that analysis of Coco’s body language indicators pointed to whether she felt relaxed when various genres of music played.
‘‘My cat Coco enjoys heavy metal the most,’’ was the conclusion, following Coco also having listened to K-pop, pop, rhythm and blues, country, classical, and rock and jazz.
Among other findings were that toothpaste, alongside items such as hand sanitiser, worked as nail polish remover, that older people could perform just as well in a reaction test as younger people, and, in investigations about tooth decay, that fruit juice had more sugar than a brand of lemonade.
Across school lead Liz Wells said science fairs were popular with pupils, who wanted to research interesting topics.
The ako established the annual Midlands Science Fair four years ago. It was to ensure pupils no longer had to travel further afield to similar events outside the district.
For this year’s fair, more than 150 pupils, aged nine to 14, from across nine schools, were competing.
‘‘There’s a lot of passion, and it’s really great to see,’’ Wells said.
Mid Canterbury businesses were keen sponsors, covering the costs of certificates and hundreds of dollars’ worth of vouchers for prizes.
