In this technological age of video games and high-tech gadgetry, some Central Alberta students are still finding science fairs an interesting way to use their brains.
Scores of youth are investing time and energy into experiments ranging from the effectiveness of existing household products to new ways of transportation.
The 28th annual Central Alberta Regional Science Fair held at Red Deer’s Bower Place Shopping Centre in March drew nearly twice as many projects as in 2010. A total of 110 students presented 70 projects.
Sixteen-year-old Tim Carlielle-Shaw is one of those students with unyielding determination and creativity. The Grade 11 student at Olds High School has been entering projects at science fairs since Grade 1. His latest endeavour: building an electric bicycle that could travel over snow easily.
He encountered obstacles along the way, including a bike chain that kept falling off, but that didn’t deter him from entering. Carlielle-Shaw’s preliminary designs still caught the attention of regional judges, The regional fair chose him, as well as five other students, to head to the Canada Wide Science Fair in Toronto in mid-May. This was Carlielle-Shaw’s fifth trip to nationals.
“At the national level, you get to meet a lot of people and go to lots of cool places,” said Carlielle-Shaw, 16. “And it’s a good opportunity to follow some of your interests and do that in a kind of a way that would be applied to the real world.”
Fellow Grade 11 student Collin Fair also took part in his fifth national science fair. This time around, he designed topographical models that simulated water flow in case of flooding.
Fair thought of the idea after seeing news reports about major flooding in Pakistan and Australia, as well as occurrences in parts of Canada. The project was done on weekends and after school.
“All of my projects since Grade 6 have been computer-based,” said Fair. “The stuff I get to do is fun for me, plus lately since Grade 7, I’ve had the chance to go somewhere in Canada for the national science fair.”
The all-expense-paid trip allows him the chance to hear speakers, tour the city and meet all of his science fair buddies. His family inspired him initially, including an older sister who attended the national science fair as well.
“My dad was the one who got me into science fairs in the first place, encouraging me to do it for the first couple of years until I decided it was fun,” said Fair, who aspires to have a career in computer science.
Five of the six students who attended Toronto’s Canada Wide Science Fair are from Chinook’s Edge School Division — besides Fair and Carlielle-Shaw, Brooklyn McDonald and Claire Bertens are Grade 7 students at Deer Meadow School in Olds. Justin Quinn, a Grade 8 student at Innisfail Junior Senior High student, walked away with national bronze medal in the intermediate category for his experiment on bottle and can sorting.
Joseph Gelowitz, a Grade 8 home-schooled student, lives in the Cremona area.
Chinook’s Edge has a number of existing and retired teachers, including Marilyn Wallace of Olds High, who are committed to this kind of learning.
Wallace has been involved in science fairs for the last two decades and is credited for helping students get to the national stage. All of her Grade 10 classes must do a science project. Submitting it to the fair is voluntary.
“I think it’s the ultimate example of inquiry-based learning — of learning that is really authentic to students,” said Wallace. “It gets the student to take something and really delve into it with great depth, rather than just write notes off a board.”
These projects require students to develop skills in communication, writing and researching, as well as do the actual science itself. That’s what Wallace finds so great.
“All of that comes together in one thing, which to me is more authentic than a multiple choice test,” said Wallace, adding she still believes wholeheartedly in traditional testing and school work as well. “It’s just that I make it work all in one big package.”
Carstairs’ Ruth Roedler has been judging for the last 26 years and is the Western zone representative for the National Science Fair Committee. The retired teacher stays committed because she sees the good that comes from science fairs.
Even her children, now in their 30s, are active in the science fair movement.
Roedler likes that science fairs get the students using a wide range of skills, including being artistic at crafting a display board.
“I think it also helps kids mature quite a bit,” she said. “We’ve noticed with some of the kids we’ve taken to nationals ... and they’ve just grown up over the whole thing.”
Schools — notably Olds High School and Innisfail Junior High School — within Chinook’s Edge go “all out for science fairs” and that makes a huge difference, Roedler said.
She noted that every Grade 9 student at the Innisfail school must do a science project and if they wish, it can be entered in the regional fair, Roedler said.
“If they’re interested in the project that they are doing, they are really going to go for it,” said Roedler. “The five projects (we took to the national fair) all involved thinking outside the box. They’re not just taking a known experiment and doing it.”
Retired teacher Carol McKinnie, a member of the Central Alberta Regional Science Fair committee, said it’s important to tell children that every one of them has wonderful skills that they can bring to the science fair.
Children as young as Grade 5 can participate in the regional fair, and Grade 7 to 12 students have the chance to compete nationally.
“When you have an outlet like this for scientific inquiry and you bring budding scientists together, it really supports what they’re doing and what they’re learning,” she said.
McKinnie’s husband Bob McKinnie, a teacher for 30 years before retiring from Chinook’s Edge School Division four years ago, also likes what the science fairs do for the participants.
In general, these participants become “well-rounded, amazing kids,” he said.
In May, he chaperoned for the seventh time to the national science fair.
“This is really an opportunity to give back to the student and really encourage Canada’s future (generation).”
For more information, go online at www.centralalbertasciencefair.ca.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com