Young Central Albertans showed off more than 30 projects at the 41st annual Central Alberta Regional Science Fair.
The competition for Grade 5-12 students from across the region was held at Red Deer Polytechnic on Saturday. The following students earned a spot at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa this summer: Claire Friesen, Emmett Shropshall, Timothy Sears, Jules Owen Pole and Jillian Reid.
“We’ve got students from Lacombe, Red Deer and southern Central Alberta – Olds, Didsbury, Carstairs, Cremona,” said Ruth Roedler, president of Central Alberta Regional Science Fair.
“There was one girl here who said to me, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever done. I was never able to speak in public before.’ They’re learning how to research things. They’re learning how to access accurate sites. They learn how to satisfy their own curiosity.”
In its heyday, the regional science fair featured up to 150 projects, Roedler noted. The event has previously been held in various schools, Bower Place Mall and virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the third year the event was held at RDP – it was also held there in 2023 and 2019.
“We did two virtual fairs during COVID – those weren’t a big success. Last year we brought the fair back and there were 17 projects. This year we’re up to 32, so we’ve nearly doubled. We’ve got new schools entering now as well,” she said.
Robbie Halonen, dean of RDP’s Donald School of Business, Science and Computing, said he was impressed by the projects on display at Saturday’s event.
“I’m a scientist and I love to see the questioning and the curiosity,” said Holonen.
“Some of these kids are just doing projects in their kitchen and that’s really the essence of science. They’re asking questions and then doing an experiment. Getting kids at this young age engaging in science is really meaningful. As a science instructor I’ve always said having kids do science is so much better than just reading notes in a classroom or learning theory.”
RDP is the perfect home for Central Alberta Regional Science Fair, Halonen noted.
“We like to have it here because at the same time we have our Bachelor of Science students having their own conference on the other side of the building. There’s a bit of synergy there,” he said.
“RDP loves to have this kind of presence. We want to have community here. … We’re here to serve our region and our community.”
More to come.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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