ESTEVAN - Sixty-six students gathered at Sacred Heart School/École Sacré Coeur in Estevan on April 10 for the Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Saskatchewan Regional Science Fair.
Sacred Heart vice-principal Christa Walton said it was great to see so many students bringing their exhibits to the school, and there were some very interesting displays.
"I feel like science fairs kind of died off after COVID a little bit, and people are just trying to get their programs back up and running, and I don't know if we would have got this much interest from even our kids if the southeast… science fair hadn't reached out to us," Walton said in an interview with Â鶹´«Ã½AV.
She was impressed with the variety of displays. A lot of youth science fairs will have volcanoes or oobleck, but this year's show had displays on hockey wax, bacteria in schools and more. Since the science fair was open to students in Grades 5-12, Walton saw entries from older students for the first time.
"They're getting pretty neat. I like how it's not just science, and I think that's why this is expanding now," she said. "You have to connect your project to science, but some people are just looking at different things connected to AI [artificial intelligence], or they're saying all of these inquiry projects could now become part of this event, where they're to solve a problem, not just look at the science behind something."
Amy Fradette from Gladmar Regional School took top spot with her submission, Natural Ways to Clean Oil Spills. The runner-up was Mikki East from the Oxbow Prairie Horizons School with Club Root in Canola.
Both qualified for the National Science Fair in Fredericton, N.B.
"I find the projects that were the best were when the kids picked a project they were connected to, like their parents are in the oilfield or they're farmers, so the canola connected to them. They were just better at presenting that way."
Age group winners were:
Primary (Grades 5 and 6): Luke Currie of Sacred Heart won gold for Plants, Peyton Burness and Mercedes Gervais from Alameda School won silver for Where are the Most Germs Located in a School?, and Sharie Anderson from Gladmar won bronze for Egg Fertilization.
Sacred Heart students thrived in the junior division for Grades 7 and 8: Sophia Deitz and Alexis Turner won gold for Hologram, Hunter Istace won silver for Plant Filtration, and Gabrielle Deitz and Melissa Sclear's Germs project shared bronze with Mesa Macdonald from Gladmar; her project was Horse Muscle Rehabilitation.
Students from the Carnduff Education Complex took the top three spots in intermediate for Grades 9 and 10. Sarah Brown and Lexah Cowan won gold for investigating the Universe of Microgreens, Sanna Dyck and Clara White won silver for What does more Environmental Damage, a Beef Feedlot or a City?, and Mya Gillilan won bronze for Plant and Beef Burger Nutrition.
For seniors (Grades 11 and 12), Fradette won gold while East shared silver with Kya Woitas Gladmar, whose project was How Does Red Light Impact Cells? Jayda Tessier of Gladmar shared bronze with Abby Symons of Oxbow; their respective projects were Why We Need Vitamin D, and Scrub-a-Dub-Dub, Why Do My Bath Bombs not Fizz in my Tub?
Michael Graham, the curriculum co-ordinator for Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone, said the event was "truly inspiring", showcasing incredible creative projects from students of all ages and grade levels. He thought the creativity, innovation and hard work on display were nothing short of outstanding.
"What a fantastic celebration of science, curiosity and achievement – well done, everyone," he said.
Walton noted the committee that runs the science fair is largely comprised of teachers and staff members for Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone. When Cornerstone couldn't find a host school, Walton said the division turned to Sacred Heart. It proved to be a great experience, and she said they look forward to being involved for years to come.
St. Mary's School's robotics club was also involved. They spoke to the judges about what they had learned in the program.
Nearly 20 people from the community served as judges. They included people interested in the different fields for the projects, along with parents, teachers and members of Estevan city council. Presentations were courtesy of Green for Life Environmental and the Â鶹´«Ã½AVeast College. Walton believes they had a tough decision to select the winners.
"They were deliberating and there were quite a few ties. They just sat in there talking amongst each other, and they just couldn't pick one over the other, because there's so many areas to look at. So, they had a tough decision and some of those older kids' projects were pretty great."
Walton expects that as more schools want to participate, the event will continue to grow.
