ISLAND WIDE SCIENCE FAIR CONTINUES TODAY AT FALE LAUMEI

Prince Von Dincklage, a level 4 student at Alofau Elementary was one of the 154 elementary students competing in this year’s Dept. of Education’s Science Fair 2013 for the elementary lower levels K through level 4 and the upper levels, 5-8, held yesterday at the Gov. H. Rex Lee Auditorium. [photo: Jeff Hayner]

The 30th annual Department of Education (DOE) Island Wide Science Fair is on display at this time at the Governor H. Rex Lee Auditorium with the elementary levels the first to be judged.

“It has been a very long pre-college special project for the Department of Education for thirty years,” said the Science Coordinator for the Department of Education, Netini Sene. “The improvements have gone slowly up, but they have improved. For the Science Fair this year, we are dividing the elementary level into two categories — the first is from K through level four and and the upper elementary category is level five through eight,” she said.

According to Sene, there were 154 projects judged yesterday, that were registered island wide for the elementary levels. Winners were announced yesterday in all of the 14 categories in both the upper and lower elementary levels for a total of 28 winners.

The 14 categories were: Behavioral and Social Science, Biochemistry, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth/Space Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Marine Science, Math, Medicine/Health, Microbiology, Physics and Zoology.

Thursday morning, the high schools will be showcasing their Science Fair projects for judging, also at the Governor H. Rex Lee Auditorium.

The top winner of the elementary lower class and upper class, along with the top two winners from high school levels 9-12, will be announced on Friday.

“The high school part of the Science Fair is affiliated with the National Science Fair — with the overall winners (usually the top two) being sent off-island to participate and compete in the National Engineering Science Fair in the United States which takes place in May,” she said.

According to Sene, close to 280 students participated in this year’s DOE Science Fair. She went on to state that one of the goals that they are trying to meet is getting the students to create an interest in science so that they will be prepared and look forward to learning science in many different career fields, pertaining to science and research.

“For them to take the initiative to continue research in science, to collect data, asking questions and learning from all of that, it will help them to understand their own environment. The four walls in the classroom, should not limit their knowledge. They should continue their research in science as they grow older,” she said.

According to the home page of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) website www.societyforscience.org, the Intel ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition which provides an annual forum for more than 1,500 high school students from about 70 countries, regions and territories to showcase their independent research as they compete for over $3 million annually. The Intel ISEF is the premier global science competition for students in grades 9-12. This year, the competition will be taking place from May 12-17 and will be held in Phoenix, Arizona.

Stay in touch through Samoa News for the winners in this year’s Department of Education Science Fair 2013.