Students showcase their science skills

In Pembina Trails, we know that the skills science can teach are applicable not just in the classroom, but also in everyday life.

Recently many of our students have taken their skills beyond school walls and participated in science fairs and symposiums. We are proud to share their stories and announce some winners.

The Manitoba Schools Science Symposium (MSSS) was held from April 25 to 28, 2019, at the University of Manitoba and was open to students from grades 4 to 12. Acadia Junior High School had the largest junior high group at MSSS, and Shaftesbury High School had the largest representation of high school students at 13 participants.

Pembina Trails students earned fifty medals at MSSS. Acadia earned the most gold medals of any school, and the division as a whole received 36 special awards, ten grand prize awards and many more.

“MSSS offers an opportunity for students to showcase their research, build skills and confidence through presentations, and interact with fellow young scientists and to celebrate their hard work and learning investment,” said Kathleen Crang, a science teacher at Shaftesbury. “Medals and special awards add to the excitement of the event, however the real benefits that students will carry forward simply can’t be measured.”  

To top it all off, five Pembina Trails students earned spots and paid trips to the Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF) in Fredericton.

The national event was held from May 15 to 17, 2019. It brought science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) out of the classroom and sees more than 500 young scientists applying STEM solutions to real world issues. 

Annika Paliwal from Acadia won a silver medal for “Master your Mind: Determining Cogitative Abilities of Individuals Though Associative Memory Games.” Sparsh Agrawal from Fort Richmond Collegiate also received a bronze medal for “Improving Stok-Trading Infrastructure Using Peer-to-Peer Block Chain Network.”

Other Pembina Trails participants at the CWSF included:

• Alexandria Martin, Shaftesbury High School

  “Digging Deeper into Den Sites: Impacts of Artic Foxes and Artic Ground Squirrels on Tundra Soils”

• Angelo Giovani Gaillet, an International student from Italy, studying at Shaftesbury High School

  “Can a Computer Diagnose Diabetes?”

• Jessica Walker, Linden Meadows School

  “Does Knowledge Increase Empathy and Compassion?”  

Congratulations! We are #PembinaTrailsProud of you.