Middle School scientists bring their questions to life at annual SISP expo

Every Middle School student at Stuart spends a trimester as a working scientist. The Science Independent Study Project (SISP) gives each student space to identify a genuine question, design her own experiment, collect data, and present her conclusions. On Friday, April 24, families, faculty, staff, and students gathered to see what this year's cohort discovered.

Fifth graders launched model rockets on the upper fields while students in grades 6-8 presented their investigations in the gym. At their boards, students delivered brief elevator pitches covering their research question, methods, results, and conclusions — then fielded questions from the families, teachers, and fellow students who cycled through.

Research from the National Coalition of Girls' Schools finds that girls' school graduates are six times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, or technology than their co-ed peers. Stuart puts that advantage to work early. SISP ensures that scientific inquiry is a natural and expected part of every student's education, from fifth grade through eighth. Students leave with scientific habits — curiosity, resilience, time management — that carry well beyond the project itself.

In their own words
The following were drawn from conversations with students at this year's expo:

Riley: Which soil medium allows beans to germinate the fastest?

"When I first did this experiment, I tried to do, like, the amount of time it would take for the beans to grow, and it didn't work. So I had to like try something new in the next 2 weeks that I had. And I learned that I could still make something amazing even if I had to try again."

Carey: Which sugar substitute works best in cookies?

"I'm really interested in going to culinary school, so I tried to find a project in that lane so I could learn more beforehand. The result I least expected turned out to be the best one. Fireweed Syrup, from an Alaskan wildflower that grows in wildfire-prone areas, turned the cookies green. And it was weirdly the best one."

Emma: How does the type of bridge affect the amount of weight it can support?

"I really love researching about physics and building things. The truss bridge held 66.46 Newtons before it collapsed — and it was so stable that I broke the deck and then the hook before I actually broke the bridge itself. A triangle is the most geometrically stable shape. It distributes force from the center, which is the weakest point, out to the sides."

Amelia: Which type of acid creates the most curd?

"I'm Italian, and cheese is a big part of my family's life — we even make our own salami at home. I'd always heard you can make ricotta at home and never tried it. The weights of each curd sample were almost exactly proportional to the pH levels of the liquids I used. That connection was genuinely surprising to me. It makes me wonder whether fermentation affects pH — and I feel like that could be really interesting to test next."

Lena: What material can create the boat that stay afloat the longest?

"When I was younger I was always into origami and making things float in water. I'd never really paid much attention to background research before. But it actually makes you understand why things happen and why you got certain results. That was the biggest thing I took away."