Experiments ranging from deforestation to golf ball efficiency are on display in Calgary, with the student researchers behind them coming from many backgrounds and ages.

The Calgary Youth Science Fair (CYSF) is in full swing this weekend and is set to welcome more than 900 Calgary students in Grades 5 to 12. Throughout the Olympic Oval, students of all grades have their presentations on display for the 500-plus volunteer judges and the public.

Presentations are categorized into innovation, experiments, and studies. The fair is open to the public on Saturday, April 11, from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m., when awards will be presented.

Sarah Shafiq, a Grade 12 student participating in the fair, said that the low-budget, accessible nature of science fairs and their corresponding experiments are very important.

“What was special about our research was that it’s a really, really simple experiment. Simple things are usually what are the greatest scientific discoveries,” she said.

“Though I wouldn’t call this a great scientific discovery.”

Her teammate in the fair, Agamya Arora, who’s also a Grade 12 student, disagreed.

“I would (call it a great scientific discovery). What makes our project special is the amount of trial and error that went into it. It is a prime example of the scientific method, and even though it might be simple, it is exactly what the scientific method is,” Arora said.

Essentially, the pair’s experiment, titled Cabbage and Gauze, Nature’s Mood Rings for Wounds, boils down to using red cabbage extract to track wound infections. 

“Wounds, when they’re infected, they start out acidic, but then they turn more alkaline, which is essentially more basic, as they heal. Red cabbage is a pH indicator and we saw that by using the extract, we were able to detect different pHs,” Shafiq said.

Because of sterility concerns and sanitation, Arora and Shafiq have not tested their hypothesis on an infected human wound. Their tests thus far have yielded encouraging results.

“It’s taken a very long time. We were going in weeks on end every single lunch period, and we were staying after school when there was an exam break. At one point, we spent four or five hours just doing calculations; it was insane,” Arora said.

Despite the strain and headaches their project brought, both Arora and Shafiq agreed they’d do similar research again, if given the chance.

All their hypotheses, research and execution stemmed from a homemade meal.

“I was cooking something, and I realized midway through washing all the pots that my pot turned blue,” Arora said.

“She (Shafiq) is really interested in health sciences and did a whole bunch of research on wounds and infected wounds and pH, and she realized that cabbage is a dynamic indicator of pH. If you have a pH that is acidic, your cabbage extract will go from pink to blue, green or yellow. But if your pH is basic, it’ll be pink. So, when I was cooking, and I realized the pot turned blue, it turned blue because tap water has a neutral-ish pH, and it has a bunch of ions and a bunch of minerals, and we connected that to wounds being infected.”

Diversity of knowledge and experience is special: Organizer

Grant Mansiere, Director of External Relations at CYSF, said that the sheer number of grades and students represented is key to a large-scale science fair.

“The range of students at the Calgary Youth Science Fair is something special. You’ve got Grade 5 students next to Grade 12 and when you’re sitting next to someone all day, presenting similar projects, discussions can start up, new friends can be made, and new acquaintances can be made,” he said.

“It’s really good to see the bonding that occurs today, because we’ve got a variety of schools that may not be typically interacting with and it’s a melting pot of science and youth. New friends are made, jokes are cracked and the best science is pitched every moment of the fair.”

Many students are returning to the fair, Mansiere said, with new-and-improved versions of previous year’s presentations. 

Because of the self-assigned topics, months, and even years of work and the research and development gone into each presentation, students are uniquely inspired to continue their work on their project, according to Mansiere.

“Their projects have come about not through something they’ve been told; it’s come about through seeing something, questioning it, going, ‘That doesn’t make sense. Why is it? Let’s figure it out,’ and they may not come to a definite conclusion, but they’ll learn a lot along the way and they will learn that science is a process and you get to meet a lot of interesting, fun people along the way,” he said.