Schools holding science fairs in lead up to regional event

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

The gymnasium at Yarmouth Junior High was overrun with about 100 scientists, and two mice, last Wednesday.

The school is one of the latest in the area to hold their own science fair in the lead up to a regional fair happening in late March.

The Tri-County Regional Science and Technology Expo will be held at Burridge Campus on Wednesday, March 26. The event, which opens to the public at 10 a.m., will see participation from all junior and senior high schools within the tri-county region.

The science fairs taking place in the schools, and the regional one, have become a popular activity as students get a chance to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom outside of the classroom.

“It’s left up to their imagination. The goal this year was to get them excited about the science fair, so we told them to look for a subject that interested them and to look at the science behind that,” said Yarmouth Junior High teacher Rosalie Leblanc about the fair held at the school on Feb. 27.

“This year there seems to be more kids excited about the fair,” she added. “We’ve had a lot of students talking about it in the halls, getting ready for it and it’s the most we’ve ever had in years.”

As always, the topics explored during the fair covered a wide range. And aside from showing their projects to the judges and the public, the junior high school opened the fair up to elementary students from Central School across the street.

Many of them beat a path to Kyle Muise’s project, which, through the use of a maze, explored the question: Who’s smarter, a female mouse or a male mouse?

“Is anybody allergic to peanut butter,” Muise asked before each demonstration, as this was the incentive used to lure the mice through the maze. Muise, who received an honourable mention for his project, was amazed by how much attention his project was attracting.

“I’m very amazed because I didn’t think many people liked mice,” he said. Asked what people seemed most interested in about his project, he said, “Seeing how fast the mice can get to the peanut butter…and they think the mouse is cute.”

Incidentally, Molly the mouse completed the maze faster than her male counterpart Max.

Not too far away student Luke Hattie was enjoying the opportunity to be able to explain the science behind his project called Splitting Atoms. He talked about how he came up with the idea for his project.

“I was bored one day so I looked on the Internet and I found hydrogen generators on a video so I decided to build a smaller one. When it came time for the science fair, I decided that is what I wanted to do,” he said.

Turns out the idea paid off for Hattie. He received the fair award for best model.



QUICK GLANCE

Yarmouth Junior High science fair results:

Most scientific: Hunnah Gray

Best model: Luke Hattie

Most original: Julia Cottreau

Best Grade 7: Colin Murphy

Best Grade 8: Samy Abidib

Best Grade 9: Daniel Rogers