THUNDER BAY – Science fairs have come a long way.
Decades ago, students might build an artificial volcano, add chemicals to make it erupt and walk away with a decent grade.
Today’s teens have taken the education rite of passage to new heights.
At Pope John Paul II School, Grade 8 students on Wednesday took part in the Helping Hands science fair, creating projects with the aim of helping those with mental or physical disabilities live better lives.
Thirteen-year-old Andi Carroll, who is terrified of visiting a dentist’s office, helped design a brochure for youngsters that helps walk them through what they can expect from a dental visit.
Whether it’s scraping and cleaning or numbing and drilling, the youngster has covered just about everything in her unconventional science project.
“It explains what tools are being used at the dentist and what they’re being used for in a friendly way, so kids don’t get nervous,” Andi said.
She phoned around to local dentists’ offices, explained what she was doing, and used the answers she got to create the pamphlets, which are expected to be distributed in many dental outlets throughout Thunder Bay.
The teen said the idea behind the science fair is fantastic.
“I think it makes you actually go out of your bubble and think about other people and simple things you can do every day that actually make a difference in someone else’s life.”
Classmate Sophie Petteplace, also 13, was thinking about her 13-year-old pet dog when she created her project, a six-foot folding ramp that aging canines can use to help them navigate stairways as their physical abilities begin to deteriorate.
“She can’t jump into cars, she can’t get up the stairs very easily and she’ll stumble a lot,” Sophie said of her own dog.
Looking around the school gymnasium, Sophie said teenagers are full of great ideas just waiting to be mined.
“And I think all of them can be used further, since this is just Grade 8s building projects. But I think we could take this to the next level, improve the materials and the idea,” she said.
Preston Dolleny and Olivia LeCorq used simple mechanics to construct a pill dispenser for older patients who might not have the strength to open pill bottles every day.
Another pair of student built an innovative system to help people who might have difficulties bending over put on pants.
The ideas are incredible, Olivia said.
“We think it’s pretty awesome because it’s for the benefits of people and not for just us,” she said.
“Science fairs are usually about experiments,” Preston said. “But this one really shows creativity in people. I just see a lot of people are thinking of great things.”
Teacher Sylvia Dziurda, a Grade 8 teacher at the south-side school, said the projects the students came up with were amazing as they used deep learning to try to make the world a better place.
“Every year that I’ve seen this project so far, I just think to myself how could it possibly get better. This year, the students just opened up their avenues a lot more,” Dziurda said.
At first she saw her students creating a lot of assistive devices to help people with physical disabilities, but now they’re working on projects to help the visibly impaired, animals and even support for people who have mental challenges.
“The students have a lot of areas that they’re passionate in,” she said.
