Students from across Grey Bruce are competing in the Regional Science Fair today at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound.
Chair of the Bluewater Regional Science and Technology Fair Heather Weber says over 175 students between grades seven to 12 from the Bluewater District School Board, the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board, École Catholique Saint-Dominique-Savio, and WILDE School set up their projects to vie for a spot to compete in the nationals this summer.
“It’s awesome to see what our students are able to accomplish. Knowing that this year could be summarized as a year of perseverance with all the snow days and the challenges that take place when putting together a project, let alone a project during these busy weather days, and changes in school schedules, but what makes me always impressed is to see the innovative ideas and the different approaches on how our students are able to solve problems,” says Weber.
Students either teamed up or worked by themselves on scientific investigation projects, research projects, and building and learning about a specific topic.
While half of the students were presenting their projects this morning, the other half were participating in activities at the Chi-Cheemaun with the Nuclear Innovation Institute. The students then swapped for the afternoon.
Julia and Paite from Amabel-Sauble Community School based their project on which brand of water bottle best keeps drinks cold.
“We took eight different water bottles and placed four ice cubes in each and put one cup of water and timed how long it took for each ice to melt in each water bottle,” says Julia.
She says they were interested in pursuing this topic as many of their classmates buy expensive water bottles.
Julia and Paite from Amabel-Sauble Community School (Photo by Nathan Shubert)
“A lot of students in our school argue about if Stanley is better or Owala or Yeti. It was shocking to see what the results were,” says Paite.
Natalia and Jeffrey from St. Mary’s Catholic High School, meanwhile, wanted to determine if cilantro tastes like soap to people from their school.
Natalia and Jeffrey from St. Mary’s Catholic High School (Photo by Nathan Shubert)
“Both of us are from a different background and many of our cultural dishes include the use of cilantro. Both of us love it very much and find that it has a citrus flavour to it. We just wanted to find out why so many people find that it does taste like soap,” says Jeffrey.
Natalia says they learned a genetic component causes people to detect the flavour of soap.
Other projects at the fair included virtual reality, irrigation, engines, video games, and the solar system.
Grey Bruce Regional Science Fair Project (Photo by Nathan Shubert)
“Students are really thinking more about the problems around us and creating innovations and different strategies to help solve problems,” says Weber.
The winners will be announced by the end of the day.
