Diocesan Science Fair highlights students’ projects
DRAPER — On Feb. 1, 160 students from Utah Catholic Schools gathered at Juan Diego Catholic High School for the annual Diocesan Science and Engineering Fair, which has been sponsored by the Utah Knights of Columbus for 29 years.
Most of the 16 Utah Catholic Schools were represented at the science fair, though in varying numbers. St. Andrew’s in Riverton sent three students, while there was a large contingent from St. John the Baptist Elementary and Middle schools, which are on the Skaggs Catholic Center in Draper. The school that experienced the most growth in participation was Our Lady of Lourdes in Salt Lake City, which saw its entries increase from an average of four to 18 students this year.
The change was exciting for OLOL Middle School Academy science teacher Josh Hegvik.
“I really like to see my kids get excited about picking their projects and diving into science in a meaningful way, instead of just having to kind of regurgitate information,” he said. “It helps them make connections in life that are pertinent to them, and not just stuff that someone’s telling them to learn.”
At the fair the entries included studies of everyday things in the students’ world such as solar power, butterflies, favorite flowers and music and blood pressure, but also included new realities in modern lives such as the performance of Artificial Intelligence. One student, Charles Bakker 12, a seventh-grader at St. Joseph Elementary, determined through his science fair project that humans can identify that content had been AI-produced only about 50 percent of the time.
“It’s scary because if it’s 50 and 50 for all age groups, the average is 50 and 50,” he said. “For example, this year in the presidential election, people were worried that people would have AI and make the election a fraud.”
For some students, the experience of researching a project and presenting it at the fair taught them important life skills. Along with scientific methods, Nomar Santana, 13, an eighth-grader at Blessed Sacrament in Sandy, learned perseverance after his hypothesis about why there was a Bonneville flood proved to be incorrect.
“I learned that science does not care about your feelings, that the theory that I thought was going to be the most accurate was the worst one,” he said. “I learned to keep moving, keep going, don’t give up. I managed to actually bring myself up from the darkness, and I managed to do really well right after that. I really grew quite a bit. So, whenever you are on the floor, get back up and keep going.”
Despite the difficulties with his hypothesis, Nomar received the Best Oral Presentation and the Overall Physics, Astronomy, and Math awards.
While science fairs can be stressful, the overall experience is very positive, said Catherine Fuller, 12, a St John the Baptist Middle School seventh-grader.
“It’s definitely a very stressful experience because you have the due dates, you have the different science fair levels, but I think probably the best part is that you’re doing an experience,” she said. “You’re getting to meet a bunch of other really smart, talented individuals.”
Catherine received the Best Use of Mathematics award for her project on power delivery.
This year the fair included a new category, Best Use of Computer Science and Technology Award, “to try to keep up with the changing interests of students and where we want our science, technology, engineering and math programs to go in our schools,” said Dr. Christine Celestino, who organizes the fair; she teaches at Juan Diego CHS. “The Knights of Columbus actually suggested that, and I think it’s a great addition and encourages our students to try some coding and do some more computer science.”
Along with providing almost 70 judges for the fair, the Utah Knights donated more than $2,800 in prizes.
“It’s just something that we can do to give to the youth,” Knights fair chairman Bill McCauley said. “It’s also enlightening for all of the adults that are judging this just to see how advanced these students are in doing everything that they’re doing.”
This is the 10th time Michael Goleniewski, a Utah Knight, has judged at the fair. A web developer at Salt Lake Community College, Goleniewski was impressed by the students’ creativity and advanced skills.
“I love being with the kids; I love seeing the creativity and all the amazing things that they can do,” he said. “One of the projects I judged was directly related to my field, and I was sitting there like he’s using language that I use now as my job, and I’m just like, ‘That’s insane; that’s so impressive.’”
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