Students at St. Veronica School in Airdrie have done their research and are busy experimenting in preparation for their first school science fair this May.
Since the school opened its doors on Sept. 3, 2019, various extracurricular clubs have kept kids busy with all kinds of projects. One of those after-school clubs is a science club for students in grades 6 to 8, run by teachers Melissa Walker and Veronica Wilson.
“Sometimes schools have lots of sports teams and some of these kids don't try out for sports or aren't very interested in sports, so the science club just kind of meets the needs, just like an arts club would meet a variety of needs and interests of students,” Walker explained.
Walker hopes the club promotes an interest in experimenting and researching, and introduces younger kids to something new that they might find fun.
“And it might not work out perfectly, just like everything in science,” Walker said.
While the club started in 2020, there was no science fair that year due to COVID-19. To avoid students mingling between grades and potentially spreading COVID-19, all extracurricular clubs were shut down, and the hiatus lasted the entirety of the following year.
Since COVID-19 restrictions have now been lifted, Walker and her teacher partner, Wilson, decided to grasp the opportunity to host their own inaugural science fair at St. Veronica.
“We have a total of 16 groups, 16 different projects and they're grade 6, 7, and 8 students at our school,” Walker explained.
Group sizes vary from one to three students and the students are focusing on vastly different topics.
Walker noted they are following the same rules as the Calgary Science Fair and various topic ideas were presented to the students to pick from.
The projects range from experimenting with different solutions to clean pennies, how different solutions affect boiled eggs and their shells, using electromagnetics to pick up paperclips, whether men or women have better memories, whether scented or unscented candles burn faster, and how temperatures affect jello. Two groups decided to do non-experimental research projects about volcanoes as well.
According to Walker, the initiative has already been a valuable learning experience for the participants.
“There's some websites with a variety of science fair ideas and we shared a few with them and talked about the experimental versus non-experimental projects,” she said. “They did some research and thought about what they wanted to test or research.”
Some locals, parents, and staff from the Calgary Catholic School District have been invited to help judge the projects during the science fair on May 10. The top three teams with the most points will receive a prize from the school.
While the fair isn’t open to the public, students in younger grades will have a chance to tour the science fair and get a taste of what the science club is all about the following day.
“It's open to parents to come judge and they'll need a little bit of orientation,” Walker said.
The Science Fair is on May 10 from 9 to 11 a.m. at St. Veronica School. Parents can sign up to judge the competition by calling the school.
