The Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF) is Canada’s largest annual youth science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) event, bringing together the top young scientists from each province and territory, and their projects. From May 17th – May 21st, great innovations came down the pike as 61 high school students from across Canada have been recognized for completing outstanding STEM projects that have solid commercial potential. The projects focused on a vast selection of niches in STEM, ranging in categories from Health & Wellness, to Technology, to Environmental. Throughout the 1 week course of the national STEM expo, competitors had the chance to communicate with each other as well as offer feedback on each other’s projects, thus fostering opportunities for networking and mutual learning between young scientists.
Students getting involved in STEM and research is of the utmost importance, as these opportunities can provide an experience that is unparalleled in school. Unlike the traditional school curriculum, the CWSF gives students a chance to learn in depth about their own STEM interests. By pursuing their own interests, students are given the freedom to go in their own directions, letting their curiosity guide them as they conduct their own research and experiments and learn how to face real life challenges and failures that they otherwise may not encounter. This opportunity for trial and error as well as comprehensive learning about a topic that one is passionate about provides experience and knowledge that students can take into the future throughout high school and university.
Louis Low, a 7th grade student from Barrie, Ontario, participated in the Canada-Wide Science Fair after being named one of the gold medalists at his regional fair. His independent research project was entitled, Does Annoying Repetitive Sound Influence Training Effectiveness, where he discovered that repetition of sound has a positive impact on sports training repetitions and increases them by 20% over no sound at all through a form of distraction. “It could be revolutionary, is the sense that it could improve the way athletes train and thus the future of sports” Louis stated. He, a competitive swimmer, was initially inspired 4 years ago by an unrelenting repetitive beeping sound that he would hear every time practice began to feel difficult, and would suddenly cease when the difficult practice was over. Thus, he set out to discover whether this actually had an effect on his past practices, or if it was simply a subconscious sound infiltrating his mind due to repetition. Through his opportunity to pursue a rigorous research project and gain a comprehensive understanding of certain auditory and neurological processes, he has become interested in a career in the neurological side of his project and learning more about the inner workings of his brain.
“It was a great experience for me, coming up to Canada Wide really motivates you to come back and keep trying”, Louis rejoiced.
Click here to learn more about the Canada Wide Science Fair and this year’s winners.
