Two of the youngest participants at the Canada-wide Science Fair are excited to return again next year after having taken in the fair for the first time from May 14 to 21 in Toronto.
Both Brooklyn McDonald and Claire Bertens said they had a good time at the event, where in addition to showing off their project regarding On Farm Algae Production, they viewed some of the estimated 400 projects from around Canada. The projects were from students in grades 7 through 12.
“I thought it was a really good experience and … it was exciting and there was no dull moment. There was a lot of interesting projects so you can get different ideas. Some of them were really very good, ” Bertens said, adding that viewing many of the projects gave her ideas on what she might possibly do in the future.
McDonald said she too was impressed with the variety of projects that were on display.
“The (Grade 12 students) had … projects that barely anyone could understand. They were very cool,” she said.
While the students were mainly in Toronto to show off their projects and participate in the fair, McDonald said they did manage to explore the city — including the CN Tower — and take in a Toronto Blue Jays game.
“It was lots of fun,” Bertens said.
Meanwhile, Grade 11 Olds High School student Tim Carleille-Shaw said his fifth trip to the national competition was a little different this year, as it was bigger and a better venue — at Seneca College. This year was the 50th anniversary of the fair and featured a lot of history, with past participants speaking.
“As a participant in multiple fairs, it was really interesting to kind of see how it changed over the time,” he said.
Carleille-Shaw previously attended national science fairs in Truro, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Peterborough, Ont. He said this one was the largest one he has attended.
“I met lots of people from all around Canada that I'm hoping to keep in contact with,” he said.
Carleille-Shaw's project was trying to come up with an alternative to the snowmobile.
“I was trying to design a snowbike that could be a more environmentally-friendly replacement for a snowmobile,” he said, noting he had some difficulty with two different prototypes he tested.
“I wasn't able to do extensive testing on either of them but one of the prototypes did show potential for sure … I could probably get it going (with more time),” he said.
Collin Fair, who also went to his fifth national science fair, said because it was the 50th anniversary of the fair, there were several new features that were added.
“Now there's an official online social networking site where you can go online and upload your videos and pictures … so it's like Facebook, but it's only for science fair and it's set up just for science fair people,” he said.
Fair's project was developing software that simulates floods.
“It's a computer program that let's you take this topographic data that's provided by the Canadian government and plug it in along with input you provide, maybe a dam just burst, you decide what the scenario is going to be, and then the simulation runs. You can watch, effectively, the water flow from where it's starting into rivers and waterways … hopefully not flooding people's houses, but you can check that out too,” he said.
Fair's goal with the project was to make it as widely available as possible. While other similar programs exist, they are only accessible to government or through payment.
“It doesn't require high-power anything and it's easy to use and … intuitive as to you can see what's happening. There's other applications (for its use) beyond just disaster management,” he said.
The Grade 11 student is interested mostly in engineering or construction-type projects. Fair said there were several health-related projects at the fair. He plans on returning to the national fair next year in Charlottetown.
