A14 - PRAIRIE POST - Friday, March 28, 2014 Southeast Alberta

BY ROSE SANCHEZ — rsanchez@prairiepost.com

Medicine Hat College was a hub of activity onMarch 22 as students and parents milled aroundshowing off their science fair experiments anddemonstrating their work for judges.

The annual Southeast Alberta Kiwanis RegionalScience Fair attracted about 126 students fromMedicine Hat as well as Prairie Rose and Grasslandsschool divisions.

“It’s pretty good, better than last year,” said PeterWallis, Dean of Science at MHC, about the regionalscience fair participation. “We’ve been workingreally hard to get into the schools (to promote it) sowe’ve seen a huge increase at the school level.”

Most of the students taking part were in grades 4-6,but this year there were 42 students in grades 7-9showing off their science work.

The event requires more than 65 volunteer judgesas each project is judged at least twice with theultimate goal of three times.

New this year was a public viewing time from 1-2 p.m. That was followed by the awards ceremonywith the top prizes handed out. The Association ofProfessional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta(APEGA) was on hand for the morning running theannual Science Olympics and Praxis is always onboard to help with the event.

“We’ve been increasing the level of participationbetween the science committee, Praxis and APEGA.It’s been very fruitful for us,” said Wallis.

On hand for the first time was a display byMindFuel, formerly the Science Alberta Foundation.

“Our interests are in increasing science literacyamongst youth,” said Kassey Shier, who wasworking the display with Gina Sprinkhuysen,both regional co-ordinators for the organization.

MindFuel offers resources in three areas.Wonderville offers online science resources for

students in grades 4-9, including games and videos.Ignition pack (formerly Science-In-A-Crate) is a

box of curriculum that includes hands-onexperiments, digital resources and online activitieswhich teach a full unit of science.

Edacity, designed by students, offers social mediainitiatives and interactive events for those in grades 9-12 which encourages students in ruralcommunities to explore science in their own areas.

“It introduces high-school students to differentcareer paths,” says Shier. “We want to get rid of thestigma that science is lab coats and beakers andboring.”

The program shows students the science in allcareers such as the science in makeup when talkingabout jobs in cosmetology.

Also new this past school year was the hiring of ascience outreach co-ordinator, Cindy Organ, by theMedicine Hat College. She has been visiting schoolssince September, talking about the science fair,offering resources for students and teachers andgetting the students excited about taking part.

The work done by all of these volunteers is about

raising awareness of science and its opportunitiesas well as the Medicine Hat College.

“We want to promote that science is for every kid,”says Bobbi Jo Bradley, one of the regional sciencefair organizers. “It’s a science and technology world, no matter what job you have. A strong base in science is necessary and beneficial.”

Kiwanis Regional Science Fair draws record participation

BY ROSE SANCHEZ — rsanchez@prairiepost.com

Students taking part in the Southeast AlbertaKiwanis Regional Science Fair March 22 at MedicineHat College were excited to share what they had beenlearning about science with their individual projects.

Dayne Rice, a Grade 5 student from Seven PersonsSchool, wanted to find out if he could charge an iPodusing lemons.

He kept hooking up more and more lemons to a voltmeter. The resulting conclusion was that he could get enough volts, but not enough electrical current.When he was going to do the experiment, his motherhad a concern about it wrecking the iPod so askedofficials at iFix Phones in Medicine Hat. They offeredan iPhone and iPod to use just in case it did damagethem, so Rice wouldn’t have to use his own.

This was Rice’s second year taking part in theregional science fair.

“It’s fun to have judges come and ask questions,”he said. “And it’s fun for other people in the sciencefair who want to know about your project.”

Rice earned a $150 award from HatSmart foroutstanding energy focused project (renewable orconsumption) or environmentally-based project onland/surface, water, waste and recycling and/or air

Levi Hart, in Grade 5 at Seven Persons School,was taking part in his first regional science fair.He wanted to see if a “ghost” would appear when hot water and cold water meets. A ghost is basically a cumulus cloud.

“I thought it would be interesting and fun to do,”he said about taking part in the science fair. “If I wasin a higher grade, I would love to go to nationals orworlds.”

Evan Mason, a Grade 9 student from Seven PersonsSchool, was taking part in his first regional sciencefair. His project studied how sizes of sound holes inacoustic instruments affect volume projection.

He chose the idea because of his interest in musicand instruments as a musician. Placing a speaker in a box, he had six different sized holes he couldplace in front of the other open end and recordthe decibels thanks to an App on his phone.

He completed six groups of seven trials for a totalof 42 trials per hole.

“If I could change anything with my project,I would go into the shapes of the holes,” he said.“Next year maybe I’ll build on this project a bitfurther.”

It still ended up being good enough to win thephysical science individual award and a spot on theteam of five travelling to the Canadian NationalScience Fair in Windsor, Ont. May 10-17.

He enjoyed completing his science project which hemainly did on his own time at home.

“It did get a little bit tedious as I did over 200 trials,but I enjoyed doing it and I enjoyed my outcome aswell. I proved my hypothesis.”

That there is science in music was no surprise toMason. While he enjoys music, he plans to keep it as a hobby and will likely pursue a career as amechanical engineer.

Some Brooks Junior High School students alsobrought their science fair projects to Medicine Hat.

Zhi Yong, in Grade 9, studied artificialphotosynthesis, trying to find out which type of lightbulbs are the best light source. The answerwas incandescent.

“Right now, our science teacher is teaching usabout ecosystems and how photosynthesis works,”he said.

He credited his teacher and parents for their advicein helping complete his project.

Natalia Shiu, also in Grade 9 at Brooks Junior HighSchool, studied the reasons for the seasons. She saidmost people take for granted the seasons change,but there is an obvious reason why they do.

“I never thought of it as something I wanted to do,”says Shiu about the science fair project. “Then Iended up really enjoying it. I would like to expandthe project a little and see if other planets haveseasons.”

This was her first year at the regional science fairand described it as “really fun.” She was happy toreceive positive feedback as well as constructivecriticism about her work. She also appreciatedseeing other students’ projects and felt challenged to do even better next year.

She ended up earning an award for individualentry in environmental science as well as theAstronomy Club Award.

Students enjoy showing off their science smarts at science fair

Photo by Rose Sanchez

Alexis Dart, of Medicine Hat, plays a game on a laptop usinglemons as the controllers while Kassey Shier, regional co-ordinator with MindFuel looks on. Mindfuel, formerly ScienceAlberta Foundation, brought a display to the Southeast AlbertaKiwanis Regional Science Fair, March 22 at Medicine HatCollege.

Evan Mason, a Grade 9 student from Seven Persons School,will represent southeast Alberta at the Canadian NationalScience Fair with his project How Sound Holes in AcousticInstruments affect volume projection.

Levi Hart, in Grade 5 from Seven Persons School, demonstrateshis project which studied whether a "ghost" or cumulus cloudappears when hot water and cold water meet. He was one ofthe participants at the Southeast Alberta Kiwanis RegionalScience Fair, March 22 at Medicine Hat College.

Photos by Rose Sanchez

Zhi Yong, right and above,explains his science fairproject to Taylor Bullman, aneducation student at theUniversity of Alberta. Yong, aGrade 9 student from BrooksJunior High School, enteredhis project looking atartificial photosynthesis.