Youth science fair showcases innovation, and tries to answer age-old questions

CALGARY- Which news station provides the most accurate forecast in Calgary? Which whitening toothpaste works the best? And who needs sleep?

These are just some of the questions budding young scientists are trying to answer at the annual Calgary Youth Science Fair, which got underway this week.

More than nine hundred Grade 5 to 12 students are taking part, in what has become Canada’s largest science fair. The projects cover all sorts of themes, from energy to the environment to practical applications.

“The Big Click” is a project about how cameras work, and one of the students behind it says it was somewhat of a passion project.

“I’ve always had a love for photography,” explains Marcus Ganz. “It started to grow on me this year.”

Tim Gubsky, a Grade 5 student from Westmount Charter, built a Lego robot that can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 20 to 25 moves, which he says took him half a month to build.

Grade 7 student Joe Willis spent two-thousand hours on his project called “Decarbonize Alberta.” He believes nuclear energy is the key to reducing carbon emissions from the oil sands.

Willis says he’d like to take his research a step further, and eventually pitch the idea to companies in the oil patch.

As for which news station provides the most accurate forecast in Calgary? Well…that would be us.

As Global News meteorologist Jordan Witzel said with a wink, after talking with the students who crunched the weather data, “these guys here know what they’re talking about.”

Two rounds of judging took place on Thursday, and the public can view the projects on Saturday morning then take in the award ceremonies at noon.

The Calgary Youth Science Fair is taking place at the Olympic Oval.