Henderson elementary student shines at regional science fair

Friday, March 20, 2009 | 10:37 a.m.

Quick: Identify the colors of the words to the right. Don't read the words. Just say the colors.

That hesitation you feel is called the Stroop Effect, and John C. Vanderburg fifth grader Dante Grasso can tell you more about it than most adults can.

Dante replicated the famous psychology experiment originally done by J.R. Stroop in 1935 and won two medals for his effort last weekend at the Southern Nevada Regional Science and Engineering Fair at UNLV.

He won first place among fifth graders and the sweepstakes for all elementary school science projects. In addition to his medals, he received a scholarship to Camp Invention this summer. The weeklong day camps are held at elementary schools in most states, including two sites in Henderson and eight in Las Vegas.

Andrew Shepherd of Mabel Hoggard Elementary won the sweepstakes for best elementary invention. Garrett Nelson of Las Vegas Day School won the sweepstakes for best middle school science project. Kevyn Robins of Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic School won for best middle school invention.

Ronita Mukherjee of The Meadows School won the sweepstakes for all high school students, entitling her to a $1,000 check and a trip to Reno May 10-15 to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Dante, who has been entering the fair since second grade, thought he had a winner when he put together this year's project.

"I had a feeling of what they would like," he said. "I was pretty much right."

Over one month, he tested three different groups on their ability to identify the color of the words — adults, children who can read and children who have not yet learned how to read.

He gave each person four samples: type with the same color as the word; a sample like the one shown here; one with gibberish letters in different colors; and one with the names of colors misspelled and colored incorrectly.

The only group that didn't have trouble with the colors when they didn't matched the words was young children, Dante said. They were also the slowest to identify the colors in all of the samples.

Dante expanded on Stroop's work, said his father, Nicholas, who thinks that is what impressed the judges. Stroop used only two samples with the words spelled correctly and tested only adults.

Dante came up with the idea to add the groups of gibberish letters and the colors misspelled, as well as the children's groups, his father said.

"That's stuff I never would have come up with," Grasso said.

Dante also added an artistic flair: The backdrop of his display mimics a Jackson Pollock painting.

For Dante, the project was more about winning than pursuing a strong interest in science. His interests lie in basketball and meteorology, not psychology, he said. If he has his way, he will be a weatherman or general manager of a basketball team when he grows up.

For his father, it is all about encouraging a scientific method of thinking — "to use reason and logic and act on that instead of emotions," he said. "Using that mode of thinking breeds success."