Judging results are in! Check out some of the most outstanding STEM projects from youth around Canada. Despite science fairs throughout Canada being cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, young makers did not stop inventing, creating and experimenting. The chance to showcase hard work was not lost—in May 2020, Youth Science Canada (YSC) successfully hosted their first online STEM fair in collaboration with Make: Projects.
A total of 635 projects were submitted, resulting in 237 virtual ribbons awarded to students with exceptional projects. Student projects were judged by three diverse panels including regional committees, YSC itself and special challenge sponsors.
Recipients of Outstanding Projects
The following “outstanding project” submissions won all three sections of awards, the Regional Awards, YSC Awards, and Challenge Awards. All winners were Canadian students from grade 7 to 12. The outstanding student STEM projects took a great deal of intelligence, creativity and coordination. They required qualities of real STEM professionals such as project managers, engineers, researchers and scientists to put together solutions for current global issues, ranging from solutions to the medical equipment concerns during COVID-19, to environmental precautions, to safety and mental well-being.
Each project is innovative and astounding. It is inspiring to see the passion these young makers have achieved. The projects and innovations are important and serve as noble solutions to global issues. Please venture onto the current virtual fair to see all winners, and more details on student projects, research and experiments. Here are a few examples of notable outstanding projects:
A Novel Approach to Bio-Friendly Microplastic Extraction by William Li.
A recipient of all three ribbon awards in the Environment & Climate Change Challenge category. This research project conducts an experiment where microplastics were added to three tanks of saltwater that contained living Ascidians. The project tests to see if the natural feeding process of the Ascidian could be utilized to filter out microplastics from water. This could be a possible aid to microplastic waste management in the ocean.
HEALIT by Keanu Chan.
A recipient of all three ribbon awards in the Health & Wellness Challenge category. This project presents the effective use of Hemostasis by Expanding Automatic Life-saving Innovative Technique (HEALIT) to prevent traumatic or life-threatening wounds to worsen. The project creator moves into design scopes of manufacturing HEALIT in different sizes to accommodate various wound sizes.
Reducing Barriers to Hydrokinetic Energy: An Autonomous Turbine Installation and Retrieval System by Maya Clapperton.
A recipient of all three ribbon awards in the Energy challenge category. Here at Engineering.com, we will be interviewing the talented Maya Clapperton. Look forward to our follow-up interview, which will be linked. This project delves into the use of hydrokinetic energy from flowing water, and using cost-effective means to harness it that includes the use of autonomous machines.
Climate change implications for an urban brook trout stream by Jacob Bowman.
Another recipient of all three ribbon awards in the Environment & Climate Change challenge category. The project studies to see the impacts of climate change in a freshwater stream. Extensive work and patience went into recording the trout species and monitoring the quality of water, growth of vegetation, and recording each trout's development.
MUSEic to my Ears: A Novel Application of Brainwave Entrainment in Assessing Concentration by Rowan Parkinson.
A recipient of all three ribbon awards in the Digital Technology challenge category. An interesting topic that should be looked into for more students, this project studies brainwaves in different frequencies that improve or impact concentration. The creator presents an analysis of changes in brainwave patterning to demonstrate increase in gamma and theta activity after listening to binaural beats.
A Dark Matter-Dark Energy Interaction Model that Explains Discrepancies in Hubble Rate Measurements by Angela Zhou.
A recipient of all three ribbon awards in the Curiosity & Ingenuity challenge category. This is an astonishing thought, this young maker studies a model of the universe. There is research presented on the current standard model for density evolution of the universe, known as the Lambda-CDM model. Angela, an intermediate grade 9/10 student gives insight to the cosmological constant because observations have indicated that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.
Each project is dynamic, and the students are presenting expert knowledge. The passion of each student shines through. Audience views and participation is still highly encouraged, and inspires students to move forward. The online platform ProjectBoard with Make: Projects did a phenomenal job allowing students and audiences to engage and participate educationally and safely, and to connect young engineers and scientists.
The ribbons are sorted into categories of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food , Curiosity & Ingenuity, Digital Technology, Disease & Illness, Energy, Environment & Climate Change, Health & Wellness and Natural Resources. The category is presented at the top of the submission’s ribbons.
A huge congratulations from us at Engineering.com to the awarded ribbon winners of the YSC fair! At a time like today, innovation from passionate and creative minds enhances our quality of life. In the future, we hope to see these students continue to impact the world on a scale only a few can reach.