Some of the Westlock area’s brightest young scientific minds were out in full force last Wednesday evening.
More than 100 students in Grades 1-8 were showing off their science projects at the 44th annual Westlock Local Science Fair, with those in Grade 4 and up competing for a chance to take their work to the Edmonton Regional Science Fair in April.
While all the students were being judged, Westlock Science Council secretary treasurer Sue Chapotelle said the results were not the final goal. “When it comes down to it, all the kids completed their projects,” she said. “Win or lose, they should all be proud.”
The projects on display ran the gamut of scientific disciplines, from chemical and physical sciences, all the way to environmental and life sciences.
In the biological sciences category, Emma Gauthier and Morgan Calladine took the chance to test whether boys or girls had better memories in an experiment they dubbed “Memory Mania.”
The two St. Mary students took five boys and five girls from their Grade 6 class and had them look at a tray with 20 different items on it. After the test subjects had studied the tray, they were given five minutes to write down as many items as they remembered seeing.
In the end, Gauthier and Calladine found the boys remembered an average of eight items, while the girls could remember 8.4 items — confirming their hypothesis that girls had better memories.
Gauthier explained the idea for the project came from the girls’ older sisters, who were working their way through their midterms. With their sisters studying, the idea came about when thinking about how much people could remember and how long it would take.
Another biological sciences project was “A Moldy Breadxperiment” by Skye Sekulich, a Grade 4 student at Busby School.
Her goal was to determine which bread would develop mould the quickest out of five different varieties.
After getting five different slices slightly dampened with regular tap water, it took only one week for the bread to start moulding.
Once the bread had developed a healthy culture, she placed them inside plastic bags inside brown paper bags and placed them in a warm place to stimulate mould growth — mould grows best in warm, dark and moist environments, she said.
One of Sekulich’s most interesting findings was how the mould started growing: in perfect circles.
Over in the medical sciences realm, Grade 5 students Austin LeBeau and Gage Croteau from St. Mary looked into which antacid worked the best with their project “pH Time.”
After noticing that many people were getting sick recently, Croteau said the idea was to find a way to help them get better faster.
Their plan involved first testing the pH of vinegar and orange juice, then adding an antacid tablet to each liquid, and finally testing the pH of the liquids once the tablets had gone to work.
Croteau and LeBeau found was Tums was the clear winner, with Pepto Bismol tablets being a close second.
Throughout the experiment, the boys said they learned about acids and bases, as well as how each tablet worked to neutralize acids in the body.
Chapotelle was very happy with what was on display this year, and marvelled at how far science experiments have come in the 44 years she’s been involved in the fair.
“It’s grown tremendously,” she said. “Every year the projects are more complex, but at the same time they’re all starting from the same level.”
She added taking part in the fair does more than simply increase the students’ scientific knowledge, it also helps them learn research, organizational and public speaking skills — skills they will need later in life.
The Top 3 projects in each of 16 categories, as well as eight special award-winners, qualified for the Edmonton Regional Science Fair April 6-7 at NAIT.
See final results from the fair in next week’s News.
