Ottawa Regional Science Fair

Laurentian SETAC participated in the 52nd Ottawa Regional Science Fair (ORSF) held at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario on Saturday, April 6th. This is the fourth consecutive year that L-SETAC volunteer judges have participated in ORSF. The judges evaluated 38 projects, in both English and French, from students in Grades 7 through 11. It was very challenging to choose just one project to receive the L-SETAC award, as the judges were blown away by all of the students’ hard work. In the end, the judges made the tough decision and chose the best project on a topic related to environmental toxicology, chemistry, pollution, contamination, remediation, or environmental protection. Special congratulations go to the recipient of the L-SETAC special award: Nicholas Chodura from Turnbull School for his project entitled “175,000 tons: Can it just disappear?” The project examined the road salt levels in field-collected environmental samples, and investigated the toxic effects on Daphnia exposed to the environmental samples. Nicholas also performed research to determine whether conventional road salt or a sugar beet alternative was the best choice for the City of Ottawa to use on its roads in the winter. Susan Roe presented Nicholas with a prize of $100 on behalf of L-SETAC, and L-SETAC also contributed $100 towards the overall costs of the volunteer-run ORSF. Congratulations to all the ORSF participants for the high caliber of their work and outstanding effort. We wish all participants future success and thank them for sharing their projects with us. We also thank the ORSF committee for the invitation to participate in the science fair again this year. Thank you to the L-SETAC Special Award judges for their participation, enthusiasm, and hard work: Michael Beking, Guillaume Couillard, Hardeep Gill, Jessica Rahn, Susan Roe, Stacey Saucier, and Siobhan Sutherland.