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Area students earn top honours at science fair Local students from Georgetown and Acton schools shone recently at the Bay Area Science & Engineering Fair held at Mohawk College. They were among 350 competitors in Grades 7 to 12 from Halton, Hamilton, Brant-Haldimand and Norfolk Regions showcasing 252 projects. Selected to attend the all-expenses paid trip to the Canada Wide Science Fair (The Nationals) in Quebec in May are Centennial School students Irene Harmsen and Alex Harmsen with their project Survival or Extinction: A Virtual Simulaton and Kylie de Chastelain and Matt Weber with their project Math Assessment Preparation Techniques as Homework. All are first-time competitors. The de Chastelain and Weber team won the Roy Middleton Award for Best Junior Project for the over all top exhibit in the Grade 7/8 division and a Gold Merit Award. Kylie and Matt studied the effectiveness of different study techniques to improve math skills. The Harmsen team also won a Gold Merit Award plus the Dofasco Process Automation Award. The duo created a computer simulation model to find out which variables will determine an animal species' survival. Also at this competition, Anthony Querques of St. Joseph School in Acton won the Silver Merit Award for his project, Maintaining the Balance-- Titrations: A Volumetric Analysis. His project also received the Chemical Institute of Canada-Hamilton Section Award, The Dr. Colin J. L. Lock Memorial Chemistry Award, the Nelson Steel AwardChemistry and the Ramanujan Mathematics Award. Winning Bronze Merit Awards were Steven Slowka of St. Joseph School for Acid Armour and James Rowan of St. Brigid for Coffee Break. Steven also won the Nelson Steel Award-Environmental. Centennial Middle School students Matt Weber and Kylie de Chastelain (left) and Alex Harmsen and Irene Harmsen (right) won an all-expenses paid trip to the Canada-wide Science Fair in Quebec next month after winning awards at the recent Bay Area Science & EngineeringFair. Submitted photos James Rowan, a Grade 8 St. Brigid student won a Bronze Merit Award for his project Coffee Break at the annual Bay Area Science & Engineering Fair held at Submitted photo Mohawk College. Food bank to use `project' Continued from pg. 13 "The nice part is that once we've worked the bugs and kinks out of the system and it's put in place, this will be a model that other food banks can use," said Ed Cox, chair of the Georgetown Bread Basket board, who added that the cost of the $300 barcode scanner will be picked up by Microsoft. "We might hire Joseph to help systemize things around here," joked Christ the King principal Nijole Vaitonis. "This project is wonderful. It's not just his brilliance, but it's hard work, commitment and determination that made this happen." The Imagine Cup is in its third year and more than 20,000 students from 90 countries have participated in the six different categories, including software design, IT, short film and interface designer, with $25,000 going to each division winner. When asked if he would consider a career in computer programming or logistics after his experience with the food bank inventory project, Querques replied that he likely will study in the field of engineering. "My heart still lies with material sciences as a career path." said Querques, who is the starting halfback for the CtK Jaguars' football team and is also taking a guitar course at school this semester. "But I know that in engineering school, there are sections that apply specifically to computing, and it's always great to have know-how with computers." (Eamonn Maher can be reached at emaher@independentfreepress.com)