Peggy Revell
There were rockets, plants, potatoes, maple syrup, tornadoes, and more as students from as far away as Red Lake were at J.W. Walker School here Saturday to compete in the 2010 Sunset Country Regional Science Fair.
And of these 25 students from Grades 4-8, three now will be heading to Peterborough on May 15-23 to compete in the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
“It feels great, I’m really excited to go on,” enthused J.W. Walker student Chelsey Skirten after capturing the overall gold medal in the intermediate division.
Skirten’s winning project, “Feel the Pressure,” looked at how different genres of music affected blood pressure.
“I liked doing the [presentation] board and just doing the experiment,” she said about her favourite part of the project.
“It’s just fun.”
“Doing the experiment” was the best part of the science fair projects, agreed fellow J.W. Walker student Hailey Beaudry, who came in second place overall for her project, “Solutions for Seeds,” and also will be heading to Peterborough next month.
She said working on her project was “interesting and a great experience.”
“[We’d] like to thank our teacher, Mrs. Bonner-Vickers,” Beaudry added.
Both Skirten and Beaudry said they are looking forward to the experience of travelling to Peterborough, as well as to see all the different projects which students from across Canada have put together.
Meanwhile, coming in third place overall was Madison Bigelow from Ear Falls, whose project tested which “picker-upper” was the most efficient and cost-effective for cleaning up spills.
The bronze-medal win was “very exciting,” he remarked.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been to a science fair out of town, and the first time I’ve ever done science fair,” he noted.
Bigelow said he’s a “very big fan of science,” and that the best part of working on the project was doing the experiments because “it’s the most exciting part of any project—doing things hands-on.”
“I learned that I shouldn’t give up,” he added, admitting there were points during the project when he wanted to because of all the work it took, but didn’t.
As for the trip to Peterborough next month, Bigelow said he is looking forward to it for a lot of reasons—one being that he’s never been to southern Ontario before.
“It’s exciting for them that are going. They get to have exposure and see all the other science projects,” noted J.W. Walker teacher Jody Bonner-Vickers, one of the regional science fair organizers who also will be accompanying the students to the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
“It’s going to be a amazing for them.
“It looks really fun-filled,” she added about the national fair, which is organized by Youth Science Canada.
Besides having their science projects judged and shown, the students will have full days of touring different sites and activities.
“I’m really pleased with the way that things went today,” Bonner-Vickers said about Saturday’s regional science fair.
“Personally, I really liked seeing the energy and the enthusiasm from the students,” she noted.
“Like the boy in Grade 4 with the rockets—he was so excited about his science fair project and he just wanted to share it.”
Bonner-Vickers added plans already are in the works for another regional fair next year, although which school in the area will host it remains unknown.
“We had some amazing sponsorship,” she said about this year’s event, noting the Rainy River District School Board has been extremely supportive of the fair.
“I think it’s really important that we reward academics as well as sports, so this is a venue for the kids who like the academics and want to excel in the academics,” she reasoned.
While still too young to be heading down to the national science fair, taking first place overall for the junior division was Jessica Gelderland of Red Lake, who called her win “amazing” considering she won silver in her own school’s science fair.
“And it’s a great thing to be here because last year there was no place to go because our school couldn’t find a [local fair],” she added.
“Friction” was the subject of Gelderland’s project. And like the others, she said her favourite part was all the testing and experimenting.
Alexander Laevens took silver overall in the junior division, with the overall bronze medal going to Kate Menard.
At the junior level in the engineering/applied sciences category, first went to Gelderland, second to Laevens, and third to David Ross-Giesbrecht.
For physical sciences, first went to Morgan Ryczek, second to Noah Johnson, and third to Nicole Baransky.
And for life sciences, first went to Menard, second to Carrie Lynn Crampton, and third to Seanna Geary.
At the intermediate level, first place in life sciences went to Skirten, second to Beaudry, and third to Jonah Cawston and Cole Edwards.
For engineering/applied sciences, first place went to Bigelow, second to Stephen Stechishen, and third to Matt Stuart and Adam Van Ael.
“I want to commend all the presenters today, as well as all the judges and organizing committee, especially Mrs. Jody Bonner-Vickers, because of the work that they all put into this,” said RRDSB Director of Education Heather Campbell, who was on hand at the awards ceremony to help present the prizes and certificates to students.
“It really celebrates the importance of science and research,” she added.
