Students shine at science fair

by Sheron Garraway

The 2005 Science Fair has once again demonstrated the inventiveness of Vincentian students.

Some of the projects included making alcohol from wood and showing how a tsunami works by the students of Girls’ High School. {{more}}

There were studies from the St. Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua that looked into whether water from the volcano affected water life, and according to an analysis by Alma Nichols, there was no effect. She said after letting the tadpoles live in separate beakers of water from a river in Mespo and in water from the La Soufriere water bed for 5 days, they both looked just as healthy.

Students from the St. Vincent Boys Grammar School looked at the make up of plant cells. They noted that people don’t know how they make food and how they grow. They used play dough, cloth cardboard and other materials to demonstrate this.

Students of the North Union Secondary school also looked at the biological side of things by looking at the DNA molecule in humans. They said that many people do not know much about what makes up their bodies, what makes their hair grow at the rate it does and how tall or short they would be. All of that would be in their DNA.

The Petit Bordel Secondary School showed interest in math and measuring and how interesting it could be. They measured the shadows and distances and even made a chart showing metric measurements. They noted that this was vital since everything involved measuring and using numbers, whether it was in cooking, masonry or carpentry.

The Community College was the only tertiary school that entered the competition. Their students designed a video game called “The Game of Life” which would eliminate players and even add persons to the game according points scored. Another youngster from the St. Martin’s Secondary School showed off his engineering ability and constructed a mini car which was battery-powered. He believed that this was one of the ways of cutting back on fuel powered engines which are expensive and dangerous to the environment. Vishnu Browne of the St. Martin’s student also believed that in the future more cars would be solar powered.

President of the Science Teachers Association John Renton was impressed with the very high quality projects coming in for the 2005 Science Fair which was held at the Girls’ Guide Headquarters.

Renton noted that there were many good works on display and this helped to take students beyond the curriculum. He said there are things that interest them scientifically and to come up with the conclusions for themselves was important. Renton said that they learn better that way. He noted that in competitions like the Science Fair, they also get to practice their presentation skills which increases their confidence. He however expressed disappointment that more primary students did not enter the fair.