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Kells Private English School Students Share their Research at the Regional Science Fair

Kells Academy students recently had an opportunity to show off their science and technology skills at the annual Hydro-Québec Montreal Regional Science & Technology Fair, held at Concordia University’s downtown campus from Sunday, March 24th to Tuesday the 26th. This competition sees emerging scientists aged 13 to 20 sharing their passion for science and technology, presenting their original research in creative and accessible ways for science fair visitors.

With technology integrated into all aspects of our curriculum, and flexible science programs that allow students to learn at their own pace, Kells Academy ensures that students have a broad array of scientific and digital skills to apply to any challenges they may encounter. This year, the projects taken on by ambitious Kells students covered a wide variety of topics, from pinhole cameras, to water purification, to defending coastal areas from tidal waves.

Read on if you’d like to know more about the impressive and far-ranging research that Kells Academy students presented at this year’s Regional Science Fair.

Our Students’ Projects Applied Novel Solutions to Today’s Challenges

Several talented Kells private English school students received honourable mentions for their work, including Salman, for his Socializing Applied project, which aimed to use smartphone technology to help students improve their social skills; Vincent, for his project Fresh Cassava Plastic, which involved producing plastic from the roots of the cassava plant; and Kevin and Ariel, for their project Cleaning Water with Corncobs. All of these projects showed a great deal of ingenuity, applying novel solutions to real-world problems.

Research Covered a Wide Variety of Interesting Topics

Several students also received distinctions for their work, including James, Rafael, Armin, and Malek.

James’ project The Race to Relief sought to answer the question, “Do more expensive pill forms of the drug ibuprofen dissolve faster in an acidic environment?” To find out, he mimicked the acidity and motion of digestion with a jar of vinegar placed in a thermos bath, discovering that the quick-release liquid gels he’d tested surprisingly took longer to dissolve and leading him to revise his initial hypothesis.

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James’ project tested the dissolving time of different forms of ibuprofen

Rafael’s work was titled, What’s the Deal with Pinholes. For his project, he experimented with a pinhole camera to examine resolution as a function of pinhole diameter. To test this, he took a series of pictures, trying different combinations of pinhole diameters and shutter speeds. Through his experiments, Rafael showed that a smaller pinhole diameter is correlated with a sharper image.

Armin’s Smart Fire Detector was designed to use technology to help reduce damage and loss of life in the case of a house fire, making use of a custom programmed Java application, a mobile iOs app, and a special wifi-connected fire detector to alert authorities of fire and share with them the medical information of those inside.

Malek’s project, How Safe is Your Water, examined whether air pollution had an impact on the pH levels of water. To test this, he compared the water in the St. Lawrence River in Montreal with the water in Lac Mekinac, confirming his hypothesis that the St. Lawrence was much more acidic. He also tested the pH levels of tap water, finding that it was more acidic than expected.

Kells Private English School Students Took on Tsunamis and EMF

Kells English junior high school students Logan and William received the McGill University – Earth and Planetary Sciences Award Distinction for their impressive work, Evaluating a New Tsunami Defence System. For this project, the two students created a tsunami test chamber, using a wave generator and a simulated coast to test the effectiveness of a protective trench in reducing the size of a tsunami wave surge. Their hypothesis was a success, with tests showing that a trench could reduce the impact of a wave by as much as 46%!

Receiving highest distinction with the McGill University – Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Award was Omar’s project, The EMF Friendly Laptop Pad, which was designed to block the electromagnetic force emitted by laptops, protecting users from the potentially harmful effects of prolonged exposure. It did so by using several different materials to create a comfortable and effective pad on which a laptop can be rested, limiting the amount of EMF that can pass through.

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Omar’s project on EMF was recognized with an award from McGill University

The Regional Science Fair proved to be a great experience for Kells Academy students, allowing them to share their interests and ideas with visitors and judges, and receiving recognition for their creative, insightful, and technologically savvy research into a wide variety of fascinating and important issues.

Are you looking for a school that can help your child develop their science and technology skills?

Contact Kells Academy for more information about our English academic high school and junior high school students.