Diocesan Science Fair participants present 'really amazing work' at annual event

IC photo/Linda Petersen

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Diocesan science fair participants discuss their projects.

DRAPER — Over the past 27 years thousands of students from Utah Catholic Schools have participated in the annual Diocesan Science and Engineering Fair. While only a small percentage go on to work as adults in science or engineering fields, most say the experience itself is valuable.

When students, judges and organizers gathered on Feb.  4 at Juan Diego Catholic High School for this year’s fair, many expressed the same sentiment. Participants varied from those like Vega Atkins, 11, a sixth-grade Kearns-St. Ann’s student for whom it was a first science fair, to St. Joseph Catholic High School junior Madilyne Beaudry, 17, who has several years of fairs under her belt and even competed nationally last year. Both found it a rewarding experience.

For her project, Vega sought to determine whether regular Coca Cola or Diet Coke is fizzier.

“I know Coca Cola, and it gave me an excuse to have it in the house,” she said of her choice of subjects, adding, science fairs “are actually fun.”

Madilyne, whose project explored the use of white-rot fungus enzymes, doesn’t plan to pursue a career in science. However, “knowing this base of science is so fundamental for everyone, and knowing the presentation skills that come into creating a science fair project and even putting together my board – there’s a lot of information that goes into data processing, and figuring out how to format things and accurately present things,” she said. “So even if I don’t go into a science field I’ll still use all of these same skills and I’ll still have to research things. Now I know how to research and I know how to create arguments well.”

Similarly, Damien Haworth, 15, a St. Andrew School eighth-grader who describes himself as shy and finds the science fair hard, says he can see a benefit to participating because interacting with judges helps him to get outside himself.

Many of the projects in this year’s fair were drawn from a list of suggested topics presented to the students by their teachers, but some participants chose their own subject matter. For his project, Quinn Cousineau-Vasquez, 13, a St. Joseph Elementary eighth-grader, built a photo phone that operates on a beam of light.

“I just wanted to know if sound could travel on a beam of light,” he said.

Andrew Lefort, 16, a Juan Diego CHS junior who has participated in several science fairs, chose to study the properties of a little-known enzyme that could help in future scientific research.

“I like the unknown, I like pushing limits,” he said. “I like trying to understand new things,” and “trying to find examples so that other researchers can continue their research is something I can achieve,” with his project. “This was a great experience working through this process.”  

Participants in this year’s fair presented superior work, organizer Dr. Christine Celestino said.  “It’s fun to see the kinds of topics the kids are interested in. We have a lot of chemistry this year and we have a lot of behavioral science, which is not typical. Overall, the students have done some really amazing work.”

About 25 percent more students participated this year compared to last year, Celestino added. “It’s very encouraging. It looks like we’re rebounding back to the numbers we had before Covid.”

The Utah Knights of Columbus, which sponsors the annual event, provided 70 judges, “which is extremely helpful, and it helps our kids to have a really positive experience and to help our fair run smoothly,” Celestino said.

One of the judges, Jacquelynn Keifer, has been a judge at the diocesan science fair for 20 years. She has worked in a laboratory for 43 years and believes in the value of science fairs.

“I think it builds the [students’] curiosity and makes them want to be scientists; it’s a very fascinating area of life,” she said.