MORGANTOWN — Coming up with a research project for Trinity Christian School’s Science and Social Studies Fair wasn’t a head-scratcher for Ben Lohman.
The seventh-grader knew exactly what he was going to do.
Two years ago, he suffered an eye-crossing concussion while playing basketball.
Yes, eye-crossing. The bump was so severe he needed surgery to realign his vision.
“My one eye was going out like this,” he said, gesturing off to one side in the school gym on Thursday night.
Students were showcasing their work in the science and social arenas. Some of them will advance to regional and state competition in the weeks ahead.
Lois Campbell, Trinity’s Purdue-trained STEM advisor, oversaw the science projects.
Social studies teacher Rachel Ridgway, whose undergraduate degrees are in history and African-American studies was there on the social sciences end, if her students needed her.
The Trinity projects took in the college degrees and research interests of the fair’s advisors — and beyond.
Students detailed DNA research and just what the body has to do to process an insulin injection.
There were looks at the lives and times of Anne Frank, the Wright Brothers and Walt Disney.
If you’ve ever thought about the boat hull design and how it keeps a pleasure craft afloat in the Atlantic or on Cheat Lake, there was a Trinity student-turned-authority to explain it.
Poster boards detailed the politics and particulars of data-mining and why packs of teenage girls are sometimes compelled to be bullies in the hallway.
“We have kids delving into biochemistry and forensic science, Campbell said. “They’re working above their age level.”
“It was really just whatever they were interested in,” Ridgway said.
“One of our kids looked at prison conditions in the 1920s and how those conditions led to reform.”
Meanwhile, Ben Loh-man, who is considering medicine or engineering as a career, said he enjoyed exploring the ramifications of football helmet construction.
He was thinking about his concussion injury while mulling ideas for projects.
The student naturally settled on football, with its history of big hits and dinged players, who, after being helped from the field by the trainer, don’t always know how many fingers Coach is waggling in front of their faces after the play.
“It’s amazing how far we’ve come,” he said.
For his research, he took two football helmets and a carton of eggs to simulate the effects of four quarters of collisions can have on the brain.
Eggs stood in for the skull and brain in his experiment.
He packed eggs between the layers of webbing and the undersides of the headgear for both helmets.
One was reinforced with additional gel pad-ding that didn’t get in the way of the wearer.
The other wasn’t.
He then dropped both on the floor.
Most of the eggs didn’t survive in the helmet without the additional padding. The eggs in the reinforced helmet fared better — for the most part.
“And that’s just a little thing designers can do,” he said.
His conclusion? “Today’s helmets are good, but they could be better.
At least it’s not like the real early players and the leather helmets they to wear. And no face mask. That’s not gonna do anything.”
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JBissett@DominionPost.com
