Notwithstanding the existence of annual science fairs involving all Government-owned primary schools, there is now a suggestion, by the Ministry and Department of Education, that each school should have its own science fair as well.
The Adrian T. Hazell Primary School, where the Principal is Mrs. Tracelyn Hamilton, took the lead by having its first in-school science fair on Monday this week. Swarms of students and teachers encircled the many and varied exhibits as The Anguillian newspaper, invited to the event by the Principal, undertook a number of photo shoots.
“It is the first time that we are having our in-school science fair,” Mrs. Hamilton told the newspaper. “We normally take part in the inter- primary school science fair every year, but Mr. Winston Duncan, the Education Officer and Coordinator for Science, has been encouraging us to have our individual science fairs. “The aim is to engage our students in becoming involved in various projects, and so we decided to have the fair involving students from kindergarten to grade 2 to have one project – but from grade three to six the children were formed into groups and did their own projects.
“The projects include alka-seltzer pop in water and its reaction; elephant toothpaste; a mummification of hot dogs by one student; solar cooking during which an egg was boiled; baking cakes with and without eggs to demonstrate texture; food chains; global warming and its effects; filtering the soil; and a range of other projects.”
The Principal further explained that while the students performed under the guidance of the teachers, they were encouraged to create their own ideas. One of the interesting projects was a case where an exhibit appeared in liquid form, but when pressured by hand it became solid.
“The students were very excited as they engaged in their practical learning,” Mrs. Hamilton noted. “They were supervised by the teachers and have been working on their projects for a period of four to five weeks since the reopening of school. The first thing we did was to have an innovation day when we wrote down the various ideas for the projects.”
The Principal commended Teacher Marianne Abbot, who is in charge of the school’s science curriculum, for bringing the science fair to fruition. She was also grateful to Teacher Juline Hughes who was initially in charge of that area of teaching, but was since transferred to the Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School.
The Adrian T. Hazell Primary School collected most of the material for its science fair, and is grateful to a number of parents for their assistance.
It was arranged for Mr. Duncan to visit the science fair and to make arrangements for the judging of the exhibits.
