Does a plant “listening” to music cause it to grow better, and if so, what kind of music does the plant like? What chemical action creates rock candy? How does mass affect speed? These are just a few of the questions that students in Carla Chance's ninth grade, honors physical science classes asked themselves in the investigations that they presented last Monday evening at the Sullards Annex Cafeteria.

They invited the public to come and view the investigations they performed, and the result was a very interesting, colorful display.

I stopped by Clint Childers and Jordan Morris' display. They told me they found something other than what they expected in their investigation. They grew three tomato plants in identical conditions except for one thing: one plant “listened” to classical (Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart) music, one plant had ears for Linkin Park (a rock group, for those of you who don't know), and one plant had no music.

They fully expected the plant with classical music to grow taller, but they found it was the Linkin Park plant that won the growth contest.

I'm not really sure of the scientific validity of the investigation, but we know what we saw, and at any rate, it was tons of fun.

I saw several lessons learned last Monday night: proper research techniques, attractive displays, teamwork. More than that, however, since I am an old speech teacher, I enjoyed watching and hearing ninth grade students present their cases to the visitors as they stopped by their displays. The more I talked to the students, the more I saw self-confidence and self-esteem rise.

High school students - “you gotta love ‘em!” They are the most interesting people I know.

http://www.thedailycitizen.com/articles/2008/03/09/news/features/features08.txt