Science is golden for high-school students

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

High-school student David Abraham pulled back the plunger and propelled the pinball up through a series of bumpers and flipped it back into play a few more times before an unfortunate ricochet sent it hurtling down ‘loser alley,’ — you know, the slot in behind the flippers where no matter how many times you hit them, that ball is gone — and he did it all in the name of science.

Abraham, a St. Thomas High School student from Pointe Claire, wasn’t goofing off. In fact, he built this pinball machine as his science project, and was displaying it at the Bell Montreal Regional Science and Technology Fair wrapped up yesterday at Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School.

“My hobby was electronics. I liked taking things apart and never quite putting them back together. I liked seeing how they worked,” he said. “It’s an excellent way to demonstrate the scientific principles and concepts at work.”

He even made his own printed circuit boards.

Using electrical, geometric, propulsion and physics concepts, Abraham’s colourful pinball machine was among the more eye-catching exhibits at the fair, which attracted 272 students and thousands of visitors over three days of display. Sounds serious? You have no idea. The students were competing for nearly $40,000 in cash prizes, scholarships and trips.

“It’s a pretty good bundle of prizes,” said fair chairman Philip Ritchie. “We have 180 judges from industry and academia, and the kids get pretty serious about it,” he said, adding the competition aspect is often a good way to keep students motivated when working on a project.

“They act like engineers and scientists when they compete with their projects. Some of these projects are so advanced their work is already publishable,” he said.

Students who compete in the regional science fair are often able to jump right in when it’s time to jump to college because they have learned to be self-starters.

“Some kids go on to CEGEP and there’s not as much structure for them, so they have to get it done on their own. These kids can do that now,” he said.

Five local high schools, PCHS, Westwood Junior and Senior, St. Thomas and Macdonald, competed.

Pointe Claire resident and Sacred Heart Grade 8 student Alison Barwick created a project that allowed her to boil water at only 20 degrees Celsius — albeit over a long period of time. By creating a vacuum chamber with a sealed plastic syringe, she was able to prove the water was boiling by the increased pressure in the chamber.

“I would start with cold water in the morning and the water’s been heating all afternoon,” she said. “The water pressure got higher as the water got warmer.”

For information on the results of the

fair, or on the Bell Montreal Regional Science and Technology Fair, consult www.sciencetech.ca.