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.

		Gold	Silver	Bronze
Novice	Life Science	Emma Donnelly “Music to Your Ears” 100 Mile Elementary	Julia Bowman “What Beats Ice?” Cataline Elementary	Sienna Lamarche “Smokers vs Non Smokers” 100 Mile Elementary   Danton Enns “Growing to the Beat” Cataline Elementary
	Health Science	Ethan Mori & Ashton Chretien “What Drinks Will Kill You” 100 Mile Elementary	Julia Siclari “Increase the Beat!” 100 Mile Elementary
	Environmental Science	Lucas Zucchelli “Hydraulic Fracturing” Mile 108 Elementary	Corey Harding “Electric Fruit” Mile 108 Elementary
	Physical Science	Arianna Dyck “Floor Heat” Cataline Elementary	Shaelynn Dyck “Hot Clothes” Cataline Elementary	Mason Pincott “Does Accuracy Cost?” 100 Mile Elementary
	Engineering Science	Lucas Kranabetter “Autonomous Cars” Sacred Heart Catholic School	Eric Kissick “The Cell Phone Detector” 100 Mile Elementary	Zoe Daigle “Zoe’s Bridge Design Challenge” Mile 108 Elementary
Junior	Life Science	Melody Watkins “Emotion Commotion” 100 Mile Elementary	Megan Balbirnie “The Mnemonic Theory” 100 Mile Elementary	Hailey Bucknell “Insomniac” 100 Mile Elementary
	Health Science	Vanessa Shearer “The Rh Factor” 100 Mile Elementary	Ivy McKay “Hello, Can You Hear Me?” Lake City Secondary	Jonathon Oldegbers “Immune System Memory?” 100 Mile Elementary
	Environmental Science	Ty Butler “Organic Oil Absorbers” 100 Mile Elementary
	Physical Science	Amy Jordaan & Noah Geerts “Endless Motion” 100 Mile Elementary
	Computer Science	Hannah Bilow & James Driver “How to Make Your Own Video Game” Marie Sharp Elementary   Rico Natanael “How WiFi Works?” Sacred Heart Catholic School	Maddie Glen “What is PLC?” Mile 108 Elementary
	Engineering Science	Nikohl Dimitrov “Marble Race” Sacred Heart Catholic School