Students from around the Cariboo-Chilcotin filled the gym at 100 Mile Elementary School for School District 27's District Science Fair on March 8.
The best of science projects were on display as students were judged on projects some of them have been working on for months.
100 Mile Elementary Grade 7 student Vanessa Shearer took home the overall gold for her project that tested RH factors in the different members of her family.
Emma Donnelly, a Grade 6 student at 100 Mile Elementary won the overall silver for her project determining how people react to music played in different keys.
Grade 5 students Ethan Mori and Ashton Chretien brought home the overall bronze for their project that looked at what drinks can kill you.
Shearer, whose mom works as a lab tech and assisted Shearer with the blood tests, says she "learned a lot" from her project.
"It was complicated, learning all of it and understanding all of it," she says.
Donnelly, who recorded songs on her violin in three different keys and then recorded the reactions to her songs for her experiment, says it was cool to see the other projects and present hers at the science fair.
Other schools from the South Cariboo also joined the district fair. Zoë Daigle, of Mile 108 Elementary worked on an engineering science project. Her goal was to make a cylindrical robot cross a bridge constructed of popsicle sticks.
Daigle based her design off of a Warren Truss bridge and adjusted it when she encountered problems with her robot.
She also enjoyed seeing the other projects at the fair.
"I like that there are all these different projects. You can experience all these different fun types of things you can do and you can definitely learn a lot of different things," she says.
Jim Price, the district coordinator for the fair, says that bringing students to the district fair allows them to learn from judges and other students in the area.
"I think the recognition from them learning something and being able to present is a great positive. It only has benefits," he says.
Learning to do a science fair project gets students curious about things.
"They really develop their reasoning skills, their work habits — because they have to do a lot of it independently. They learn technology... They learn to do Excel and make graphs using technology and to be able to present," he says.
Any of the students who earned a gold, silver or bronze at the fair are able to attend the Regional Science Fair in Kamloops on April 6 and 7.