Lorenzo Rodriguez fronts his “Fruit Power” project.
Banning fourth-grader Lorenzo Rodriguez tried to light up an LED using a variety of fruits. His fifth grade student at Beaumont, Richard Corbin, discovered a technique used by Native Americans to make bitter acorns tastier.
The two, along with Banning Nicollette Middle School student Elizabeth Scott Magedman, represented the San Gorgonio Path at the 2023 County Science and Engineering Fair at Riverside’s Bourns Technology Center on March 1.
Lorenzo, a student at Anna House Elementary School in Beaumont, won a gold medal for his project Fruit Power.
He wanted to find out which fruit produced the highest voltage and determine if a particular fruit could produce more power than an AA battery.
Initially, he predicted that the grapefruit would produce the most volts based on its size, while the smaller lime would produce the least voltage.
His materials included zinc and copper anodes, a penny, an apple, a banana, three lemons cut in half, a lime, an orange, a pear, and a tomato.
He managed to find enough energy in a combination of 5 lemons, 1 grapefruit, 1 lime and 1 apple to light an LED the size of a Christmas tree light.
Richard Corbyn holds the first place medal.
At Hemmerling Elementary School in Banning Corbin, the wiiwish enthusiast learned relatively recently that the acorns used to make the acorns his Cahuilla ancestors had enjoyed for generations had been prepared. I learned that it comes from nuts that can be toxic to humans.
It fascinated him enough to find out how Native Americans survived potentially poisonous nuts.
He believed the leaching process, in which the outer tannins surrounding the seed were removed, worked well.
Once the soaking process, which has been done at least three times, is complete, the nuts are crumbled into a cornmeal-like mash and ready to eat.
Lorenzo and Richard are too young to attend the state science fair.
Elizabeth Scott-Magedman has been named one of the nominees for this year’s Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovator Challenge. This puts her among the top 10% of competitors at the County Science Her Fair associated with this challenge.
