By Adam Donnelly

Regional Science Fair draws students from across interior to Kamloops

Apr 10, 2018 | 5:44 PM

KAMLOOPS — The top young scientific minds from across the region are gathered in Kamloops Tuesday and Wednesday, as the Cariboo Mainline Regional Science Fair has taken over the gymnasium at Thompson Rivers University. From volcanoes to DNA, the student projects cover a wide range of topics. For many students, the science fair has become a community they can return to year after year.

Students between Grade 4 and Grade 12 have come from across the interior of the province – Merritt, Williams Lake, Ashcroft and beyond – to showcase their winning science fair projects at the Cariboo Mainline Regional Science Fair.

“We get kids who participate from a number of different school districts in the region,” SD 73 District Principal of International Education explains. “[The] kids compete locally at their own fairs, and these are the best from those programs.”

Hailey Cooman and Kylie Schuberg from Ashcroft are attending their first regional science fair, using a tried and true project concept – the Volcano.

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“We had questions about, like, what is lava? And stuff like that,” Cooman says. “We found out about why it explodes.”

“And what is a magma chamber?” Schuberg interjects.

“We found out quite a lot,” according to Cooman.

Poelzer has been involved with organizing the regional science fair for the past 16 years. He says with students ranging in age from Grade 4 to Grade 12, there are usually projects covering a wide range of scientific topics.

“There will be projects that are really, really smiled,” he says, “very, very well thought out. Other [students] are just beginning, and over the years these kids, if they stick with it, we’ll find that they’ll do very well over the years.”

Grade 10 Student Malik Sharma has been competing in the science fair since she was Hailey and Kylie’s age.

“I’ve been doing science fairs since I was in Grade 4,” Sharma says. “I’m always on the search for new topics from anywhere.”

This year, her project was about food fraud, a subject she saw in a TV news story. Malika wanted to find out whether the fish we buy at the grocery store is really the species it says on the label.

“I do that through DNA barcoding, which is basically looking down into the DNA of the fish and seeing if it resembles the [DNA] it should be,” Sharma explains.

While winners of the regional event receive an all expenses paid trip to the national science fair in Ottawa, for competitors we talked to, it’s the fair is about building confidence, meeting new people, and making lifelong friends.

“The day before you come to the science fair, you’re like I’m going to be meeting all the familiar faces, and seeing all the familiar people, and the committee as well are all really nice,” Sharma says