Durham Regional Science Fair winners receive national honour

Two Grade 11 science students at Oshawa’s O’Neill Collegiate and Vocational Institute have had quite a semester. On April 2, Marvin Giang and Kevin Zheng were the grand prize winners at the Durham Regional Science Fair (DRSF) hosted by the University of Ontario Institute of Technology's (UOIT) Faculty of Science. 

After Giang and Zheng wowed the DRSF judges with their project Headphones: A Catalyst or Scapegoat for Adolescent Hearing Loss, the duo went on to represent Durham Region at the Canada-Wide Science Festival (CWSF) in Montreal, Quebec. The national judges were also impressed with their work and awarded the students a special award sponsored by the Canadian Acoustical Association. The week-long CWSF featured the 500 top young scientists from all across Canada.

More than 500,000 students took part in local science fairs in schools, libraries and other venues over the past year before moving on to one of the approximately 100 regional science fairs across the country. The 2016 DRSF featured 54 participants and 46 projects from nearly two dozen schools in Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering, Uxbridge, Whitby, and Brock and Scugog Townships.

2016 DRSF award winners

Senior (grades 11 and 12):

• First – Marvin Giang and Kevin Zheng (O’Neill C.V.I., Oshawa)
• Second – Ashna Hudani (home-schooled) 

Intermediate (grades 9 and 10):

• First – Noor Al-Shabboot (Wali Ul Asr Learning Institute East Campus, Scarborough)
• Second – Sarah Ravindran (home-schooled)
• Third – Hannah Morgulis (Pickering H.S., Pickering)

Junior (grades 7 and 8)

• First – Dhrumil Patel (Alexander Graham Bell P.S., Ajax)
• Second – Rumesha Khan and Nicolette Christodoulakis (Roland Michener P.S., Ajax)
• Third – Ahmaad Ansari (Roland Michener P.S., Ajax)

Elementary (grades 4 to 6)

• First – Shiv Patel (Alexander Graham Bell P.S., Ajax)
• Second – Aaliya Moolla (Sir William Stephenson P.S., Whitby)
• Third – Kate Harris and Sydney Philipsz (St. Elizabeth Seton C.S.,    Pickering)

Special awards

• UOIT Innovation Awards – Aaliya Moolla (Sir William Stephenson P.S., Whitby) and Ahmaad Ansari (Roland Michener P.S., Ajax)
• Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority Award – Jyot Adhvaryu (Lord Elgin P.S., Ajax)

The next DRSF will be held Saturday April 8, 2017 at the university’s north Oshawa location. All students in grades 4 to 12 in Durham Region are welcome to participate. For additional details, registration information and contacts, check out the DRSF website.