Walking around a regional science fair Tuesday morning, Glenn Cunningham saw that the future is in good hands.
As chair of the region’s 49 th annual science fair, Cunningham said he’s always impressed by the depth of information he sees in the 157 projects from across Northwestern Ontario schools.
“I’m really excited about the intelligence that’s being shown, the enthusiasm that’s being shown by our young people,” Cunningham said at the Lakehead University fieldhouse. “If people are concerned about our future, just come here and you’ll see some very smart, intelligent, enthusiastic, well-spoken young people who are going to be our leaders and our professionals in the future.”
Students from grades 4 to 12 are competing in three categories for the chance to represent Northwestern Ontario at the national science fair in Prince Edward Island later this year. Around 60 volunteer judges, who come from at least graduate-level science backgrounds, will try to find out how much the students know about their projects and how they’re presented.
“So the students being able to express how they did the science, how they controlled their variables and the other aspects of the scientific process,” Cunningham said. “The topic is one thing but actually being able to talk to other people about what they’ve done is the most powerful part.”
Katelyn Labelle, a 13-year-old student at Valley Central, is hoping her time spent extracting DNA from strawberries will get her some money and maybe a trip to the nationals. The extra day off from school was also a bonus she said.
“It’s fun too,” Labelle said. “And you meet lots of people while you’re doing it.”
Labelle wanted to know if plants, like people, have different DNA from plant to plant. After extracting the DNA from three strawberries and studying it under a microscope, she concluded that the DNA is different.
12-year-old Anirudh Shahi studied the effects of meditation and yoga on people at a local retirement home. The grade seven Woodcrest student said he wanted to find out a way to reduce stress for people.
“The old people have helped us a lot to establish this community so I decided to help them through this project,” he said. “It helps them stay healthy and they can have a healthy life and they can also expand their lifetimes.”
When Shahi went back to the home after his project was complete, he found that his subjects were still doing the exercises. And he learned something about healthy living that has helped him as he now does meditation at home. He’s also been learning a lot from being at the science fair.
“You can learn coming here you can look at all the other projects and learn from them,” he said.
Both Labelle and Shahi want to pursue a career in science. Cunningham said that more and more kids are getting involved in the sciences as the region’s economy changes.
“They’re seeing that to be successful in the coming economy you have to have some scientific understanding and the ability to talk about it.”
