Popping balloons, shouts of excitement, and the occasional splash of lemonade signified the approaching end of the school year as eighth graders at Baker Middle School entertained and educated their classmates and other students with exhibits at the annual Science Fair.

Students from other schools in the county also watched the machines at work on Thursday, June 1.

There were 52 projects — constructions of cardboard, tape, glue, string and a variety of other materials — in the BMS gym.

Though some devices had the same end goal, the pathways all varied. The goal of each project was to complete a task.

Jaxyn Ramos and Brooklyn Baxter’s project made lemonade.

“So, we put two marbles in and it pulls out our wedge, releasing the car that goes into the pulley and drops the powder in the cup,” Ramos said.

Kaitlyn Schwin and Liz Timm had the tallest project, a machine that peeled a banana for an awaiting paper Minion figurine.

“The marble will go down the screw at the start and go into the pulley, which then goes to the lever that has a domino up here and then that will drop to the wheel that spins,” Schwin said. “And then there’s a marble that will go down the inclined plane to bump a wheel that ends up peeling the banana.”

Jadyn Pasadyn and Lydia Spooner’s project delivered mini marshmallows into an waiting cup of hot chocolate.

As with most inventions, some students experienced technical difficulties, but that didn’t stop them from improvising and giving the visiting students a fun show.

Marley Hussey and Sophia Green’s project, at first, was going to make elephant toothpaste, but it didn’t work well.

So they decided to drop Mentos mints into Diet Coke, creating a brief fountain of bubbles.

Theo Pepera and Jake Christensen also used that explosive combination in their machine.

Lillyan Smith and Henry Smith — not related — built a gumball machine.

“There’s a contraption that you put the marble — which would be the coin — in and then you twist it which puts the marble into motion,” Henry said. “It goes down the screw into an inclined plane that goes down into a pulley that is attached to a cup that pulls the pulley down which puts another marble in motion, and then a bigger marble in motion. It goes down a couple more inclined planes and hits a gumball into a cup.”

Some of the students watching the Smiths’ project walked away with a gumball prize.

Sawyer Blatchford incorporated a slingshot into his project, sending a car with a toothpick mounted in the front to pop a balloon. His project earned many cheers from Haines Elementary students who toured the Science Fair.

Alexandria Honsvick and Alyssa Everett also joined the balloon popping.

Their project was facing difficulties, but an onlooking student was allowed to push the marble into motion that set off the awaiting car to pop the balloon.

Mandie Rose, a physical science teacher at BMS, said the theme for this year’s fair was Rube Goldberg, the American cartoonist known for his illustrations of machines that used convoluted processes to perform simple tasks.

“I’m a physics teacher so it corresponds with force and motion and all of that stuff,” Rose said. “And they could do whatever they wanted — it just needed to do something.”

Each project needed to have at least four out of six simple machines in operation, in four stages, and each needed to complete a task.

“What I really enjoy is their problem solving,” Rose said.

Students, including those from other schools, voted for the “best of show” and “most creative” projects, along with judges from the BMS staff.

The winners will be announced during an assembly on the last day of school, June 8.