In The Classroom:

Fremont Elementary School’s auditorium was filled Friday afternoon with sixth-graders eagerly awaiting their chance to explain their science projects.

From predicting when quail eggs would hatch, to demonstrating which detergent was better — Tide or Clorox — the science projects included a wide variety of subjects.

Sixth-grader Justin Driffill’s project revolved around predicting the best hockey stick to use for kids his age.

He measured the accuracy level of three fiberglass hockey sticks, each with a different flexibility against the wrist-shot and slap-shot maneuvers to find out which worked best. Sticks with a 35 flex are the most flexible, meaning they give an additional kick to the puck; 50 flex are mid-range; and 65 flex are more rigid.

Justin hypothesized that a stick in the 50-flex range is more suitable for kids his age, according to the online research he conducted, but he wanted to see if that was really true.

His research was inconclusive in that the type of stick depended on a number of variables.

“For kids my age, 50 flex [is suitable] for my strength,” Justin said. “For kids a little stronger than me, probably 65. And kids 8, 9, 10, maybe 8 or 9, should have a 35.”

The Tide-versus-Clorox experiment by Celine Navasartian, 12, and Lizzy Kaser, 11, involved washing two identical white T-shirts stained with coffee, ketchup and grass. One shirt was washed three times using Clorox, and one shirt was washed three times using Tide, much like in the television commercials.

“Everybody didn’t know what to pick,” Lizzy said.

“They didn’t know the truth about commercials and all that different stuff. So we wanted to test it. We didn’t want to waste anybody’s time.”

The hypothesis, based on the girls’ own experience at home, was that Clorox would win.

They were right.

“I told my sister that I wanted to do this project,” Celine said.

“It was really cool. I can learn a lot of things from it.”

The science fair also included classes from grades four and five, but those projects were shown in their respective classrooms.

First-, second- and third-graders had the opportunity to view the exhibits by the sixth-grade class; the sixth-graders, in turn, would act as teachers and explain the science behind their projects.