The Kootenay Lake school district sent three aspiring scientists to the national science fair in Fredericton recently, and Nicholas Paun was awarded the senior level silver medal while Dylan Peil came home with the junior bronze.
“This year’s Canada Wide Science Fair was the most fun I’ve had in my entire life. I got to see Fredericton, New Brunswick for the first time in my life and it reminded me of home without the mountains,” said Peil, who received a $2,000 prize with his bronze medal.
Peil is a Grade 8 student at Trafalgar, and for the science fair he designed and prototyped a solar concentrator using a satellite dish covered with mirrors, and also constructed three Stirling engines that can transform heat energy into mechanical energy and finally into electrical energy.
“I also enjoyed the hospitality of University of New Brunswick, and it was also a very beautiful campus,” said Peil.
Peil’s fellow students Paun and Ivie Lock-Luttmer effusively agreed.
“This was my second year, and it was quite different from last time. It’s hard to pick out any one thing, but I enjoyed presenting my project to the judges. I also made a lot of connections with fellow finalists and had so many interesting conversations,” said Paun.
Paun, a Grade 12 student at Mount Sentinel, earned his spot at the national competition for developing Chemlogic: A Logic Programming Chemistry System.
Paun’s invention is now available as an Android app on Google Play.
Paun’s silver medal came with a $11,000 prize, and now he’s planning to attend UBC in September to study computer science and physics.
“This is my last year of high school so it was an amazing way to end my science fair career,” he said.
Lock-Luttmer, who is a Grade 7 student at Trafalgar, said she enjoyed sharing her project with the judges, and thoroughly enjoyed her week-long stay. Her project was about dead zones, and she said she plans to continue her research to include more local information.
“It was cool to be in a dorm and see what that would be like,” she said.
To view pictures of the trios’ trip, visit 2015westkootenaycwsf.blogspot.ca.