The Central Interior Science Exhibition is scheduled for March 9th in the Bentley Science Centre at UNBC.
Like last year, it is an “in-person” event – students of all ages presenting their science fair projects to judges. No more virtual fairs where students present online.
Why an in-person event? Because students can present much more information when on campus and perhaps more importantly, they get to see what other science-minded students are doing.
Plus, various student clubs and organizations at the university will have hands-on activities and displays.
All in all, it will be a celebration of fun and science for everyone involved.
I have been part of the CISE for the past 28 years but the exhibition has been going on for much longer. CISE is one of the 12 regional fairs in British Columbia under the auspices of the B.C. Science Fair Foundation.
Every year, we try to send five students to the Canada-wide Science Fair, which will be in Ottawa this year. (If anyone would like to help support these students, please let us know at CIScienceExhibition@gmail.com! Any support would be gratefully received!)
During my time with CISE, I can say we have had some amazing students carry on to Canada-wide. They are part of the BC Team which typically has around 75 participants. And our students are competitive with the best from all the other regions. Some have had amazing inventions.
For example, Ashley Anderson and Forrest Tower are just two of the students selected from our region over the years to represent British Columbia (and Canada) at the Taiwan International Science Fair in Taipei, Taiwan. They earned a third place showing in the environmental category for their project “Application of Biofuel Technologies for Third World Countries” which consisted of a system to generate cooking fuel from compostable material.
Last year, Prabhnoor Sidhu earned a silver excellence award at the Canada-wide Science Fair for her invention of a system to lessen the effects of fast moving landslides. While she didn’t get a trip to Taiwan (no international in-person fairs yet), she certainly attracted the attention of the media and engineering firms.
So please join us at the CISE and get a glimpse of the next generation of science superstars.
Todd Whitcombe is a chemistry professor at UNBC.
