For more than 50 years, Sudbury area grade 7 to 12 students have been exploring and discovering science through science projects and sharing their work through school, school board and regional science fairs.
Each year, students from local schools bring their science projects to the regional science fair to share the science experiments, studies and innovation projects that have taken weeks and, in some cases, even months to perfect.
Due to the pandemic, the 51st Sudbury Regional Science Fair (SRSF) was held online through the ProjectBoard portal.
Student projects were initially uploaded to the school board portals, and the winners of three school board science fairs and one community science fair were selected to be part of the virtual regional science fair.
Professional scientists and engineers from the community judged the projects and through two rounds of judging selected the divisional and special award winners.
A select group of judges reviewed the top projects in the fair to choose the seven students that would attend the virtual Canada-Wide Science Fair from May 17 to 21.
Given the fair would have been held in Ottawa, the organizers of the national fair plan to make the virtual event as engaging as possible and give it an Ottawa flavour.
In this pandemic year, the SRSF is considered to be a success, with 29 projects and 39 participants from the Greater Sudbury region.
The projects, which showcased a variety of scientific initiatives, were judged by professional scientists from the local area, who always play an important role in the regional science fair. These individuals judged all the projects for 18 divisional awards and 27 special awards.
The highlight of the virtual awards ceremony, broadcast on Facebook on Sunday April 18, was the announcement of those who will represent our region at this year's Canada-Wide Science Fair.
The students selected to attend the virtual CWSF are:
Gaïa Dhatt, École St. Denis, CSC NouvelON
L'impact de la Covid-19 sur notre génération
1st place Junior Life Sciences
Child Health Research Award
Mary Leigh, Marymount Academy, Sudbury Catholic Schools
The Best Acoustical Set-Up
1st place Junior Physical Sciences
OPG Energy Award
Annika Matusch, Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School, Rainbow District School Board
Cleaning Up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: A Novel Solution
1st place Intermediate Engineering
FROSKR Award
OPG Energy Award
OPG Engineering Award
OPG Environmental Award
Cameron O’Daiskey and Isaac Jeanveau, St. Anne Elementary School, Sudbury Catholic Schools
SNUFFED OUT
1st place Junior Engineering
OPG innovation Award
Ted Rogers Innovation Award
Edward Xiong, Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School, Rainbow District School Board
Autonomous Prevention of Bus Overcrowding and Mask Detection
1st place Intermediate Engineering
Founding Members Award
OPG Engineering Award
Engineering Award
Kerry Yang, Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School, Rainbow District School Board
Reversal of Colorectal Cancer by Dandelion Root Extracts
1st place Senior Life Sciences
Best in Fair
Biology Award
Chemistry/Biochemistry Award
Jack and Maija Ceming Chemistry Award
For a full list of winners, visit the science fair’s website.
