Curiosities and imaginations run wild at Elgin U-46 STEM Expo

Hoverboards may have been the must-have gift this past holiday season, but a group of Elgin elementary school students think they're on the verge of the next big thing: hovercrafts.

Anthony Villagomez, Alejandro Alcaraz, Remigio Rosas and Carlos Espin, all 11 and from Elgin's Coleman Elementary School, unveiled the first version of their homemade hovercraft at Saturday's seventh annual Elgin Area School District U-46 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Expo at South Elgin High School.

Though their first crack features a gas-powered leaf-blower engine, Alcaraz said they'll continue to evolve their concept to be more eco-friendly.

"Our research tells us that hovercrafts are the cars of the future," he said. "We've learned the concept with the gas motor, and I think we can improve it by putting a fan on there."

Espin said future variations will also likely include the ability to steer the craft.

"We'll get it perfect with some time," Rosas said. "We've gotten this far working two days a week for a few weeks."

The boys were a small group of the nearly 400 students from U-46 and the Gail Borden Public Library District showing off their science projects Saturday.

Krishna Thakker, a second grade student at Hilltop Elementary School in Elgin demonstrated how her ancestors in India would use lemons or limes to clean their copper bowls and dinnerware.

She scrubbed a bowl with a lime to show how the citric acid breaks the copper oxide free from the bowl, giving it a shinier, cleaner finish.

"I showed her how we used to do it in India, and she thought it was really cool," said her mother, Sweta Thakkar.

Another group of students, in one of the more important scientific studies of the morning, set out to determine if Double Stuf Oreos really contain double the stuff.

Angel Ordvinos and Esteban Carrillo, both fourth-grade students at Streamwood's Sunnyside Elementary School scraped the insides from all of the regular Oreos in a package, weighed the cream filling on a digital scale and compared the result with the fillings from the Double Stuf cookies.

"Some Double Stuf Oreos had more than double the amount of filling as the regular Oreos, but some had exactly the same amount. It's a bummer because I love Oreos."

District Science Coordinator Marc Hans thanked the students and their parents for taking the time to study and look into things the students found interesting enough to learn more about.

"We've got 400 kids in a gym on a Saturday morning exploring their natural curiosities," Hans said. "How awesome is that?"