On Friday 31 January San Anton School hosted the 2014 Science Fair, organised by the Science Department.
This biennial event is highly anticipated in the School Calendar and one in which the Grade 8 ( Form 1) and Grade 9 ( Form 2) students get an opportunity to acquire hands-on scientific knowledge through research and project work.
Participating in such an event allows students to take charge of their own learning experience and to explore a scientific topic that interests them. The practice of science using investigative, discovery-based, open-ended processes, with opportunities for designing experiments built on previous observations, represents an educational tool that effectively demonstrates to students how the scientific process works in the professional world.
The students were allowed to choose a topic to investigate and together with their mentors, developed a hypothesis, planned on how to test their idea, performed the tests required and reached a conclusion.
This year, there were 40 projects participating in the fair representing a good mix of Physics, Biology and Chemistry. Some projects investigated a hypothesis whereas some others demonstrated a principle commonly studied in science.
Each work station had a group of students explaining away with enthusiasm and demonstrating the fine details of their work, while others set their models working or mixed various solutions with surprising results!
The judges - Dr Joe Gauci (Head of San Anton School), Prof. Richard Muscat (School Board Chairman and Pro-Rector/Professor – Physiology and Biochemistry – University of Malta), Mario Muscat (Educational Officer of General Science), Sheryl Green (MCAST Lecturer) as well as Richard Cassar White, Ylenia Borg and Mirhea Vella (three Grade 12 San Anton students who study all three sciences) - had a difficult task to select the best four projects out of the 40 presented.
The selected projects were ‘Which fruit or vegetable will create the most power?’ by Joseph Vella, Angela Debono and Claudio Chircop, and ‘The Science of Flies’ by Luke Grech, Jake Satariano and Alexander Borg in Grade 8.
For Grade 9, the prizes for the best two projects were awarded to ‘The Effects of Acid Rain on plant Growth’ by Michele Gauci, Matthew Mamo, and Shaun Said, Liam Brincat and ‘Soap and Bubbles. Cost Effective?’ by Nicholas Galea, Nick Borg and Lucas Sidhu.
The science Fair at San Anton School is another example of how the investigative approach and cooperative-based learning strategies are used effectively in the science classrooms to enhance student learning and engagement.