randolphscience.org
for more information contact Peter Sheldon at
psheldon@randolphcollege.edu
Finalists’ Contributions from the 2012 Randolph College
Science Festival Poetry Competition
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
elementar y school
WHY DOES MATTER MATTER?
Why does matter matter?
Because it makes up everything
From a tiny blade of grass,
To the diamond in your ring.
Why does matter matter?
Because it makes us who we are.
From a tiny speck of dust,
To the most magnificent star.
Clearly matter matters.
It’s as simple as can be.
It’s the basis of the universe.
Matter is the key!
First Place Elementary School
Name: Ian Strong
Grade: 5
School:Tye River Elementary School
Teacher: Lisa Schoener
I2
SCIENCE ROCKS
Science in 2nd grade is so much fun,
My love of science has only begun.
Magnets are fun - they attract and repel.
North and south poles stick - let’s all yell!
ROYGBIV it is such a sight
Rainbows happen with just the right angle of light
A drop of food coloring in a bowl of milk.
Add dishsoap and it looks like tie-dye silk.
Matter is solids, liquids and gases too.
Changes with evaporation or condensation to name a few!
Boil sugar and water, dump in a jar with a stick.
Rock candy - awesome! I want a lick.
Maybe someday a scientist I will be
But for now, hey there, look, a poet is me!
Second Place Elementary School
Name: Jack Wimmer
Grade: 2
School:Thomas Jefferson Elementary School
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
elementar y school
VOLCANOES
Volcano erupting.
Brown overflowing with reddish orange lava.
Heavy booming,
Shaking,
Ground cracking.
Hot.
Charcoal.
Burning trees are falling.
Animals are dying, running.
Lava- smooth syrup, but flaming.
Third Place Elementary School
Name: Hunter Smith
Grade: 5
School: Goodview Elementary School
Teacher: Carrie Perry
I4
SCIENCE
Science the rat has a hat.
He likes cats.
He ate a fly he flew.
He has big ears.
He has boots.
He is a cute baby.
He has fun all the time.
Name: Mark Hall
Grade: 1
School: Elon Elementary School
Teacher:Tiffany Burchette
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
elementar y school
FISH AND FISHING
Colorful
Vertebrate
LOVE to catch you
Hook, line, sinker
Name: Claire Martin
Grade: 5
School: Boonsboro Elementary
Teacher: Peggy Terrell
I6
SUN
The sun is a big ball of color.
In outer space it kind of hovers.
It is so bright.
It brings a lot of light.
I think the sun is cool.
But obviously you can’t dunk it in the pool.
It may burn you if you get too close.
But if you do, you will turn to toast.
The sun is a big ball of fire.
It is not a war if you use a lighter.
The sun is very hot.
But ice is so not.
Scientists like to explore it.
But we don’t want to destroy it.
The sun is very awesome.
But it can put you in a coffin.
Name: Rebecca Richards
Grade: 4
School: Bedford Hills Elementary
Teacher: Chelsey Dews
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
elementar y school
CATS
Snow leopards
white and black
jumping, protecting, nursing
hunting, sleeping, running
spotty and small
Jaguars
Diamante Poem
Name: John Vo Wixted
Grade: 2
School: Homeschool
I8
ATOMS IN THE WORLD
Atoms, atoms all around,
Are we seeing them?
Are we breathing them?
Everything we see or breathe,
Matter and mass it must be,
Electrons with their shock,
Protons and their charges,
And negative neutrons,
Make the world make the world it is,
I see trees and flowers,
All those atoms wowers,
I see busy bees,
And it seems like they’re looking at me,
Everything in the world is made of atoms,
Atoms, atoms wow!!
Name: Emily Thomas
Grade: 5
School: Rockfish River Elementary
Teacher: Sharon Aldridge
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
elementar y school
NO MORE A PLANET
Pluto has been left out for quite a few years
To the advantage of being a planet,
Although its shed all of its tears
The scientists still won’t regret it.
Oh, poor Pluto
Oh, poor Pluto
The scientists left you out,
They still don’t get it,
They still won’t regret it
Oh, Pluto, how cruel to make you go!
He might just be a little slow,
Taking two hundred forty-seven years
To go around the sun, you know,
But I’m telling you, the scientists still won’t hear!
Oh, poor Pluto
Oh, poor Pluto
The scientists left you out,
They still don’t get it,
They still won’t regret it
Oh, Pluto, whom children won’t know!
I10
Whatever happened to “My Very Eager Mother
Just Served Us Nine Pancakes”?
What will she now serve us?
I guess she no longer bakes
Just because you’re cold and dark
Doesn’t mean they have to make a fuss.
Oh, poor Pluto
Oh, poor Pluto
The scientists left you out,
They still don’t get it,
They still won’t regret it
Oh, Pluto, we miss you so!
Name: Paul Marselus
Grade: 5
School: Homeschool
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
elementar y school
SCIENCE ACROSTIC POEM
Salinity – the amount of salt that is in a sea or ocean
Cells – what all living things are made of
Invertebrates – animals without backbones
Elements – all atoms are made of elements
Neutrons – help make up the atom’s nucleus
Cytoplasm – supports and protects cell organelles
Electron – the negative charge that orbits the nucleus
Name: Keyondra Carter
Grade: 5
School:Tye River Elementary School
Teacher: Lisa Schoener
I12
THE OCEAN
First comes land
Where our feet walk in sand
Next comes the continental shelf
Which I have walked in myself
Then comes the continental slope
It’s very deep, I know
But so is the abyssal plain
From being flat it gets its name
The continental rise goes up
Like water filling up a cup
The trench is the deepest of all
Hopefully you won’t manage to fall
Very deep into the sea!
Name: Haley Thomas
Grade: 5
School:Tye River Elementary School
Teacher: Lisa Schoener
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
elementar y school
MIMAS
Mimas, one of Saturn’s moons,
Was hit quite long ago.
An asteroid crashed into it,
It was not moving slow.
Mimas nearly broke apart,
From the heavy blow.
It has a crater as a scar,
Caused by that rocky foe!
Name: Gabriel Quintero
Grade: 4
School: Homeschool
I14
SUNLIGHT
Sunlight on water
Shines when it strikes riverbed
Warms you up inside
Haiku composition
Name: Alexa Fleshman
Grade: 5
School: R.S Payne Elementary School
Teacher: Patsy Sellers
Poetry
OF SCIENCE elementar y school
THE MOON
INCONSISTANT MOONS
PULLING AT THE EARTH’S OCEANS
CRESENT, HALF, AND FULL
Name: Maggie Kicklighter
Grade: 5
School: R.S Payne Elementary School
Teacher: Patsy Sellers
I16
PENGUIN
Black-and-white penguin,
Sliding on its soft belly,
Waiting for no one.
HAIKU
Name: Lucy Jablonski
Grade: 5
School: R.S Payne Elementary School
Teacher: Patsy Sellers
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
THE CELL
What does an Animal or Plant cell have in it?
A Nucleus, like a brain, that controls things within it.
A cell also has a special organelle
That moves materials throughout the cell.
An Endoplasmic Reticulum is what this part is named.
It helps the cell to function and is highly famed.
The cell needs protein made by the Ribosome
In the cell a Ribosome is truly at home.
Transporting proteins is the Golgi Bodies job.
While the cells Mitochondria make energy for the mob.
In a plant cell lives the chloroplasts.
Chloroplasts can really make food fast.
The Vacuole stores water, waste, and food.
The cell can use it later when it’s in the mood.
The Lysosome breaks down food and worn out parts,
It never stops working like a human heart.
All these organelles go swimming in cytoplasmic mess
It is called Cytoplasm and its like jelly more or less.
To protect the cell the Cell membrane is there
It keeps it safe from environmental wear and tear.
The Plant Cell relies on the Cell Wall for support.
It encloses the cell like a fort.
The basic building blocks of life is the cell.
It carries out the functions of life extremely well.
FIRST PLACE Middle School
Name: Noele Galindo
Grade: 6
School: Forest Middle School
Teacher: Charlene Cobbins
I18
SCIENCE!
Science is everywhere,
It makes up me and you.
It is drastically important,
Oh if you only knew!
The human body make-up,
Organs and functions galore,
To the teeniest bacteria,
That can make you really sore.
Let’s go a little bigger,
To astronomy and space.
Science got us to the moon,
Which was really quite a race!
And we couldn’t forget Einstein,
He contributed a bunch!
His theory of Relativity,
Was quite a brilliant hunch!
Last but not least the ocean life,
And ecosystem too.
Some fascinating topics,
Ample praise is really due.
There is so much more to discover,
And we’re doing that today.
But if someone says science is boring…
You’ll know just what to say!
SECOND PLACE Middle School
Name: Brandi Mitchell
Grade: 7
School: Forest Middle School
Teacher: n/a
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
THE GENE SCHOOL
At the double helix playground, bases like to hang around
But these bases have their tricks; they are all in different cliques.
Adenine A only likes Thymine T and Guanine G only likes Cytosine C.
Every once and a while G asks A for a play date.
“Want to pair up and go mutate?”
But A will only pair with T and ignores the other bases.
Interestingly, the principal never hears these cases.
Sugar and phosphate are friends with everyone.
At recess, they meet the bases in the nucleotide to have fun.
In the afternoon, A, T, G, and C line up in a sequence they can’t wait.
Then they spend their energy making a copy, to replicate.
These bases and never ending cliques make a pattern that’s always the same.
If they were kids who never made any new friends, it would be a shame.
At the end of the day the bases are tired and ready to go home.
They take the spiral staircase back to their cozy chromosome.
Cliques in real life with people are bad - in sadness they are wealthy.
But cliques in DNA are good; they help you to stay healthy.
THIRD PLACE Middle School
Name: Katherine Morse
Grade: 7
School: Dunbar Middle School
Teacher: Kenna Tarkenton
I20
SCIENCE
From genetics to cells,
And discoveries of Mendel,
Science really is quite cool!
Chromosomes and DNA,
Or ribosomes and RNA.
Experiments to do,
And variables to test,
I don’t know about you,
But its really hard to rest!
With so many things to discover,
I am a science lover!
Endoplasmic reticulum,
Is my favorite cell curriculum!
Chemicals and Punnet Squares,
There really is no times to spare!
So let’s discover SCIENCE!!!
Name: Alyson Walkup
Grade: 6
School: Forest Middle School
Teacher: Charlene Cobbins
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
SCIENCE!
Science here and science there
Science is truly everywhere!
From classification to cells
Where does it end?
No one can tell!
There is DNA and RNA
The Scientific Method too
There is diffusion and osmosis
And the genetics in you!
Then there are mutations
Beneficial and harmful
It can also be neutral
This has no effect at all
Have you ever tried a Punnet Square?
They are quite fun to do
It is math and science, all in one
And you are predicting genetics too
What is DNA?
What does it stand for?
It is Deoxyribonucleic acid
It is long,
But do not worry,
There isn’t anymore
Diffusion is passive transport,
Into and out of a cell
If you learn about cell processes
Then you should learn this very well
Osmosis is diffusion
The passive type of transport
Of water molecules
So the cell has some support
I22
If you classify an organism
You put it in seven groups
Kingdom then Phylum,
Third is the Class
Order, and then Family,
Finally, the last two,
Genus then the Species,
That’s what I conclude
So learn about Science!
Learn it a lot
You have got the basics now,
So go on,
Give it a shot!
Name: Bailey Tibbs
Grade: 6
School: Forest Middle
Teacher: Charlene Cobbins
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
CLASSIFICATION
I love to study taxonomy,
It has a lot of ways to classify.
From flies to elephants,
They are all in one category.
This category is kingdoms,
The largest of all.
We are in the animalia kingdom,
But plants aren’t.
The next is Phylum,
We are chordata.
That means we have back bones,
So that kicks turtles off.
The third is class,
We are mammalia.
That means we have fur,
And feed our young with milk.
After that is order,
We are primates.
We have opposable thumbs,
And large brains.
I24
I don’t want to take all day,
So what is our genus?
Homo
This means man
The last and final one is,
Homo Sapiens
This is the species
And the scientific name.
I guess that is all,
See you next time.
But for right now
GO TO SCHOOL!
Name: Ariel Kraje
Grade: 6
School: Forest Middle School
Teacher: Charlene Cobbins
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
RUNNING
They run over the plain,
Ignoring the pain
Of galloping so long.
Through the misty rain,
Completely insane,
Their hooves drum in song.
Pursued not by prey,
But teethed-ones by day,
Hunger driving them mad.
But they can’t delay,
The temptational hay,
And finally give in and are glad.
The teethed-ones get closer,
Their pack going faster,
To make the first kill.
Name: Emma Eubank
Grade: 6
School: James River Day School
Teacher: Becca Eubank
I26
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED?
Have you ever wondered
How the trees grow?
Have you ever wondered
Why the wind blows?
Why you don’t just fly into space
Or why someone sang “Amazing Grace”?
How long your veins can stretch
Or how my brain can take a test?
How a bird can stay in air
Or how my sister has long hair?
Why my eye can see the sky
Or why a plane can get so high?
Have you ever wondered
Why a penguin can’t fly?
Just come to James River
And you’ll know why.
Name: Michael Mawn
Grade: 6
School: James River Day School
Teacher: Becca Eubank
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
MAGIC OF PLANTING
I drop a seed out the door;
I don’t need this seed any more.
The wind pushes it into the air,
Then carries it off somewhere.
When it falls to the ground,
It hardly makes a sound.
Then it starts to sprout;
I can’t wait for the leaves to pop out.
It rains and the sun shines,
As I watch its twisting vines.
An apple tree grows tall.
The old apples fall.
The magic of planting is everywhere.
Next time I think I will grow a pear.
Name: Hannah white
Grade: 6
School: James River Day School
Teacher: Becca Eubank
I28
GALAPAGOS FINCHES
The Warbler Finch’s beak is small and pointed
the better to eat delectable insects
The Cactus Finch’s beak is like needle nosed pliers
the better to suck nectar
The Ground Finch’s beak is thick and strong
the better to crack nuts
Adaptations
the better to survive
my pretty
Name: Stephanie Kee
Grade: 6
School: Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation
Teacher: Sue McClure
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
PARTS OF THE EAR
The outer ear
Makes it easier to hear
When people scream and shout.
Have no doubt
I hear it loud and clear.
The sound then travels
To my middle ear
That holds a hammer that helps me
Hear your grammar.
If your words are rambled
It might hurt my anvil.
My stirrup is another tiny bone
That helps me hear every tone.
Make way to my inner ear
The cochlea is there.
It sends a message to my brain
With each tiny vibrating hair.
This concludes my ear riddle
Outer, inner, and middle!
Name:Whitney Nash
Grade: 7
School: Sandusky Middle School
Teacher: Linda Borland
I30
THE MATH OF THE MIND
When I was very young
Rainbow-colored fairies danced around my room.
Tiny sparkling dancers, wings as thin as petals
They called the tune. I only watch in half-way dreams
At dawn, they melt away
Like ice cubes in the sun.
Now instead of fairies
I see numbers strolling by
One through ten, all in a line
Marching like toy soldiers
Except for #2 who
Can’t stay in line
He dances in a circle, his bright yellow hands
Waving in the air
Number 1 leads the procession
Baton is his snowy white hand
Number 10 (dark purple), in back, asks #8
If he can cut in line.
Number 8 nods his head, his bright-red Mohawk
Almost touching the floor.
Number 10 looks back, a grin on his face
To see #9 (pale green), his mouth hanging open
Astonishment and surprise.
From fairies to numbers
My mind has grown
What wonders will my mind’s eye see
When I am 70 years old?
Name: Martha J. Rose
Grade: 7
School: Linkhorne Middle school
Teacher: n/a
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
middle school
THE FROG
‘ribbit ribbit’ went the frog.
As he could not see through the fog.
When he jumped right onto a rock.
But a small man put a cage over the frog and it locked.
As the small man walked to his lair.
The frog shouted ‘this is not fair’.
The frog was put in a box.
As he fell you heard a plop.
The frog looked derailed.
He tried to escape but he failed.
When he awoke the next day he was on a table.
A child approached him wearing a label.
He was cut open.
He could not die he was hoping.
The frog did not make it.
His family was shaken.
Name: Jeremy Jewell
Grade: 7
School: Rustburg Middle School
Teacher: Andrea Rice
I32
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
high school
INERTIA
Love is like this.
We are all like this.
The bigger the mass of the subject,
the larger the inertia will be.
Love is like this.
We are all like this.
If there is no extra force
Set on the subject,
the subject will keep going
In a straight endless line.
Love is like this.
We are like this.
Inertia,
the resistance
of any physical object
to change in its state of motion or rest.
Love is
We are
the resistance
of any outside force.
FIRST PLACE High School
Name: Ching Cheung
Grade: 12
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Matt LaFreniere
I34
HIGH SCHOOL LAB
Test tubes, magnets, a Petri dish,
RNA polymerase, and a litmus strip,
Real world things that hold no interest
When dealing with the semi-existent,
Matter composed of strings that intertwine,
The square root of minus one Is plus or minus i.
Not to mention quantum particles and worm holes,
twenty-one dimensions, or faster than light neutrinos.
So excuse me teacher when I say,
I have no interest in inclined planes, today.
SECOND PLACE High School
Name: Eric Antley
Grade: 11
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Marcia Yochum
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
high school
PHASES OF RELATIONS
Excuse my TANGENT, but Math is annoying me again tonight. He needs
to grow up and SOLVE his own PROBLEMS. The following SUMS up my
evening: He keeps wanting me to find his X no matter how many TIMES
I tell him she’s not coming back. I don’t know Y there’s a DIVISION
between them. Maybe she thinks he’s a SQUARE. Another FACTOR in
why she won’t come back could be that he’s too RADICAL. Maybe she
would come back if he stopped being so NEGATIVE about everything.
Either way though, it doesn’t make a DIFFERENCE. He says that he has
changed, but I don’t IMAGINE that she sees it from his ANGLE. She
wants a SINE as PROOF that he has changed to a large enough DEGREE
to SIMPLIFY their PROBLEMS. This is just a FRACTION of the problems he’s having--there’s no LIMIT to his troubles. To be honest, I don’t
know how he can FUNCTION. There are an EXPONENTIAL NUMBER of other things I could ADD, but I’m POSITIVE that this has been
a POWERful enough statement for you to realize how frustrating my
evening has been without me taking up HALF of a page to type it all out.
I hope your evening is GREATER THAN mine has been.
THIRD PLACE High School
Name: George Sherman
Grade: 11
School: Amherst County High School
Teacher: n/a
I36
SCIENCE MYSTERY
For you I have fallen 9.8 meters per second.
I can’t figure out her shape, but I feel her presence
Your love is irrational without resistance. Every time
I drop, jump, or fall deeply with speed; it is because
Of your existence.You are the force
That holds me down, making sure that I never leave the ground.
Dear Lord, she’s physically attractive with a force proportional
Of two body masses
Hers and mine .........
In my head I believe that I revolve around the sun,
In my head I believe that you’re the only one.
As big as my earthly head is,
You still manage to keep me
Revolving
Through relation,
I am attracted to your gravitation.
For you I have fallen 9.8 meters per second.
Name: Martin Owens
Grade: 12
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Marcia Yochum and Matt LaFreniere
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
high school
THE VOICE
Gravity fight against me.
I tackle this obstacle.
I’m learning how to fly,
Gravity pulls at my ankle.
A Thousand times falling
Down, to the earth,
Gravity is working
To prevent my rebirth.
I stretch my wings, and give
Myself to the wind.
always
touching the sky.
Here, I am flying
Conquering gravity,
As you win over your resistors
too.
Name: Richard Yu
Grade: 12
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Matt LaFreniere
I38
THE ELECTRICAL FLOWS
Love hides in the electrical flows, secretly
Which Flows like rivers and never ceases,
Connecting electric apparatuses, flawless,
All resistors in a series circuit share the same current,
All resistors in a parallel circuit share the same voltage,
Rivers run through mountains and villages,
All together.
Yes, Love is all together.
It never stops,
Electrical flows generate light and heat.
It never pauses,
Love emerges in the world and heart.
Electrical flows face hard resistance,
And never surrenders.
Love triggers this chemistry in society,
It never ends
Name: Bowen Zhang
Grade: 12
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Matt LaFreniere
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
high school
ATTRACTION
The consistency of the human drive
bounces around like an electron,
the undeniable attraction
for the opposite, the pull of a proton.
Lust for the opposite,
the human nature,
trapped within the bounds
of the earth.
A proton positive.
An electron negative.
Trapped within their atom.
One without the other
nothing
Name: Gray Clark
Grade: 11
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Matt LaFreniere
I40
IT MUST BE
Because starches are not broken down
into glucose molecules anymore.
Because the sinatrial node does not contract atria
nor send a delayed impulse.
Because Initiation does not begin
when the small ribosomal subunit attaches to a special
region near the 5’ end of the mRNA.
I hope this makes sense of yesterday.
I try to find the reasons why you left
I hope these are the reasons.
These must be the reasons.
Name: Ryan Chun
Grade: 12
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Matt LaFreniere
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
high school
PANGEA
Pan, pan, you have you taken me so far?
I can’t come home if you move further from me
Sweeping past me, Every inch into
eternity
If you don’t come back
I will surely
break
Direction has no meaning to you
Just like you
I break
Dig deep my home,
My mother,
My barrier
You have surely
Taken me
You will always have
Part of me
All of me
Parts try to travel
I get lost,
Deserted
I am part of you
as you are part of me
Under my skin
Under the crust
You and I will surely
break.
Name: Siri Johnson
Grade: 9
School: New Vistas
Teacher: Marie Arrington
I42
SUPERNOVA
Sweet serenity with,
Silence echoing,
Throughout the deep and empty unknown universe.
Seemingly dark yet,
light all around,
At night we see the pictures in the sky.
Sudden collapse of,
A core from grav1ty,
A sudden flash of light but no one around to know.
Years fly by then,
We finally see,
A supernova showing us its strength.
uncontrollable and mighty,
but we’ll never know,
When it may become a black hole.
Name:Victoria Grabeel
Grade: 11
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Marcia Yochum
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
high school
PANGAEA
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Pangaea
Can you tell me about Pangaea’s fall?
Did she die a lingering death?
Or was it fast like a mighty blast?
I’m sure Earth shook with a deafening roar,
Mountains and seas split joined no more.
Can you tell me who my neighbors were?
Maybe Japan, China or the land of myrrh.
Name: Erin Smith
Grade: 9
School: New Vistas
Teacher: Marie Arrington
I44
WHAT WE DO
teaspoons of salt
milligrams of vinegar
for our experiments
on our diagrams
frogs, lab rats, snakes
We never take a break
from dissecting and operating
for science sake
analyzing our results
We do what We do
for our experiments to find a response
We are scientists
Name: Courtney Taylor
Grade: 10
School: New Vistas
Teacher: Marie Arrington
Poetry
OF SCIENCE
high school
ASTRUM
In the dark, you see the star?
The flickering almost bleached.
Its light takes an eternity
Until it reaches your eyes!
Perhaps a thousand years ago
the star already died.
Name: Jonas Wilhelm
Grade: 10
School:Virginia Episcopal School
Teacher: Marcia Yochum
randolphscience.org
for more information contact Peter Sheldon at
psheldon@randolphcollege.edu
Finalists’ Contributions from the 2012 Randolph College
Science Festival Poetry Competition