On March 24th, 2012, for the third year in a row, Laurentian SETAC participated in the 51st Ottawa Regional Science Fair (ORSF) held at CarletonUniversity in Ottawa, ON. Volunteer judges evaluated 45 projects, choosing the best project on a topic related to environmental toxicology, chemistry, pollution, contamination, remediation or environmental protection. Congratulations to all of the ORSF participants for the high quality and variety of their work. It was difficult to pick just one project to receive the L-SETAC award as the judges were very impressed with all of the projects examined. We wish all participants future success and thank them for sharing their projects with us. Thank you also to the ORSF committee for the invitation to participate in the science fair again this year.
Special congratulations to the recipients of the L-SETAC special award: Ying Lin and Nasana Vaidya from Colonel By Secondary School for their project entitled “Coffee Grinds and Tea Leaves as Biosorbents for Toxic Lead in Drinking Water”. The project examined the ability of 3 varieties of coffee and 1 type of tea to remove lead from contaminated drinking water. The award winners won a prize of $100, and L-SETAC also contributed $100 towards the overall costs of ORSF which is volunteer-run. Thank you to all of the L-SETAC Special Award judges for their participation, hard work, and enthusiasm: Cristina Cassone, Guillaume Couillard, Maureen Curtin, Marc Fernandez, Hardeep Gill, Kelly Lebel, Gillian Manning, and Jessica Rahn. Submitted by Jessica Rahn