After months of research, planning and execution, students from all over northern Utah were invited to Weber State University to show off their science fair projects.
The Dee Events Center was filled with aspiring scientists on March 23 and 24, as WSU hosted the Ritchey Science & Engineering Fair.
The juniors and seniors high school students competed on Thursday and Friday respectively, each selected to attend the fair for doing well in their respective school science fairs.
Barbara Wachocki, the acting director of RSEF, said that students were selected from Ogden, Davis, Weber, Box Elder and Morgan school districts. Participants from Logan were also invited since the science fair in Logan had been cancelled.
According to Cheri Trbovich, one of the organizers for the Science Fair, there was a total of 265 junior participants on Thursday alone.
In addition to being judged on their projects, the students were also able to show their projects to family, friends and members of the public at the fair.
About 150 judges were tasked with scoring the projects in 11 different categories, including botany, chemistry, earth/space, energy and transportation, engineering and computer science, environmental, math/physics, medical/health, microbiology, social/behavioral and zoology.
The judges mostly consisted of professionals and professors from the various scientific fields of study; however, a few students from WSU were also able to judge.
Volunteers, including Wildcat Madison Heartmann, were out on the floor as well to help students.
Heartmann, who studies zoology at WSU, said this was her first time as a volunteer.
“I’ve been keeping an eye out and making sure kids are doing the scientific process right,” Heartmann said. “I make sure their hypothesis and their data is done correctly.”
First, second and third place winners were selected in each category, and in addition to placing, students could also earn honorable mentions from the judges.
Prizes for the winners consisted of scholarships to WSU, cash prizes and the opportunity travel to Los Angeles to participate or observe the International Science Fair.
All results from both the junior and senior science fairs, as well as information about upcoming competitions can be found online.
