Grade 9 Science Fair is a Huge Success

March 3, 2022

Academics

GNS

On February 9, GNS held its annual Grade 9 Science Fair. After COVID-19 forced many modifications to the fair last year, 2022 allowed students to present their work in a more traditional way.

The Science Fair is a culmination of several months of effort for the Grade 9s, explained Ms. Anne-Marie Simard, Math and Science Teacher.

“They have been working on their Science Fair projects since October. We spent lots of time in class brainstorming ideas, developing our research questions and building a project design,” she said. “Some students, who chose to have human participants for their projects, also had to write a letter of information and a consent form to follow ethics guidelines for research. Their projects received approval before the November break, and they had about two months to collect their experimental data.”

The day started in the Gudewill Gym with a fun science demonstration from Senior School Lab Tech Mr. Daniel Osborne. From there, students had to complete a science-themed scavenger hunt, which included a photobooth in the gym.

Students were then given a virtual presentation from UVic’s Dr. Olav E. Krigolson, GNS parent and one of the world’s top neuroscientists, who recently led a Canadian team on a mission in the HISEAS Mars Habitat.

A quick break followed, then students took turns presenting and evaluating each other’s work. The students answered questions about their projects, which covered a wide range of topics.

Oscar Humphries-Joyeux researched how the aerodynamics of a toy car would change depending on its form and the materials it consisted of. He explained, “Aerodynamics definitely do affect how far a car can travel. Something always caused a change.”

Nathan Rogers’ project was about how sound waves interact with each other in a quiet room. “It’s very hard to get a room down to zero decibels,” he said of his findings. “No matter how hard you try.”

Katelyn McDewar researched how magnets have an effect on plant growth. “I found that as you increase magnetic force, you also increase plant growth.” She added “But as the plants were wilting, the ones with less magnetic force had less of a decrease in height.”

Anne-Marie and the rest of the science department is (as always) both proud and impressed by the students’ work, but it isn’t complete for some of them.

“The Science Fair is a way to celebrate all the hard work these students have done as they designed, carried and analyzed a scientific investigation independently,” she said. “And the top projects, as decided by Senior School student volunteer judges, have been invited to participate in the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair in April.”

The full list of Science Fair awards is as follows.

The Student’s Choice Award for favourite project as voted by your peers is awarded to Cormac Mallet.

The Science Fair Awards, which receive an invitation to the Regional Science Fair, are awarded to Daniel Bekker, Zoe Carroll, Phoebe Dendes, Joseph He, Sophie Jolivet, and Erin Plecas.

The Top Science Fair Awards, which received an invite to represent GNS at the virtual Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair at UVic, are awarded to Katharine Morley (3rd place), Ibrahim Khurram (2nd place,) and Evan Papps (1st place).