The 56th annual Peterborough Regional Science fair took place this month at Trent University. Organizers said this year’s event drew 220 students from kindergarten through grade 12.

“We are now seeing more people return to the science fair after a break during covid,” said operations coordinator, Jill Emery. “It is so great to see the variety of projects every year they’re so excited and so enthusiastic to tell you about their projects.”

She added the event has a long-standing history in the region.

“It was started by (Dr.) Ray March, a chemistry professor, and they had seven students,” she said. “He is 90 years old now and was here to view the projects.”

Topics cover physical & mathematical sciences, health and life sciences, earth and environmental sciences and computing and engineering sciences, with a wide variety of entries.

Grade 7 student, Claire Sehn, looked into hydrogel and its potential impact on agriculture.

“I used two kinds of crops, corn and peas and I wanted to see if hydrogel, a substance that holds water well, could help them survive a drought.”

Another participant, grade 9 student Alex Beaubine, compared A.I. to human performance.

“What I set out to test which is better, A.I. or humans, when it comes to coding,” he said he found the A.I. platform he used struggled compared to humans.

Other projects ranged from testing whether cats and dogs have a dominant paw to creating a solar-powered charger using salvaged materials.

The displays are evaluated by a group of judges, with cash prizes, scholarships and entry to the Canada-wide science fair, taking place in Ottawa, up for grabs.

But, Emery said the goal is to inspire youth in the science field.

“We see some students come back year after year,” she said. “Sometimes the fair sets their path in the sciences early and you’ll see them continue with it through post-secondary.”

“If you start a hypothesis and you don’t answer your hypothesis you still learned something,” said Emery. “So that is my number one message, that there is no wrong answer in science.”

This year’s top three awards include;

• Best in Fair: Ella Sehn, intermediate, from St. Peter C. S. S. for her project Right on the Nose: Using a Super-Absorbent Polymer to Improve Treatment of Chronic Sinusitis
• 2nd place: Hansen Chen from Lakefield College School for Envisioning Sailing Dynamics: Harnessing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for Enhanced Sailing Performance
• 3rd place: Kayley Carter-Phillips, junior, for her project Addition of Triz-EDTA to topical antibiotics. 

More information and a full list of prize winners can be found online at the Peterborough Science Fair website. 

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