Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Feb 24/99) - The proper way to insulate Northern homes was the theme behind the Science Fair's project What's between your walls? held for grades 5 through 8 last week at Manni Ulujuk junior high school.

The second-place finisher was Slower than Molasses by Kelli McLarty and Kathleen Merritt, while Lindsey Greer and Ashley Preteau's project, Concentration, took third spot.

The Science Fair winners, Colleen Rogers and Brittany Scobie, said they learned a lot doing their project, including what insulation tested best to warm up Arctic homes.

"It was a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed nailing our project together," Rogers says with a laugh.

"I learned a lot doing this. My dad built our old house and he thought fibreglass was the warmest insulation, but our experiment showed Styrofoam was actually the warmest."

For Rogers' partner Scobie, winning at this level of the annual Science Fair is nothing new. Scobie says her project last year earned her the right to travel to Timmins, Ontario, for the Canada-wide Science Fair.

"Going to Timmins was a lot of fun, but it was certainly more challenging than it is up here," says Scobie. "Timmins was OK, but there were a lot of students there who were really into science. Once I saw some of the projects there, I almost felt like I really didn't deserve to be there."

Between Manni Ulujuk and the Simon Alalttuq Ford high school, four Rankin projects will be chosen as overall winners and those students will earn the right to travel to Baker Lake for the regional competition on March 4. From the regionals, winners will be selected to travel to this year's Canada-wide Science Fair.

Manni Ulujuk principal Margo Aksalnik says the school has been involved with the Science Fair for more than a decade.

"Some of our students get really involved with their projects,"says Aksalnik. "We had several students from here go on to the Canada-wide Science Fair when our school was Grade 7 through 12, but our students are a little younger now, with the older kids moving on to the new high school, so we'll have to see how they do.

"It will, at least, be a good learning experience for them at this stage and something they will be able to draw upon once they reach the high school stage. The high school will be holding its Science Fair early next month and then the overall winners will be selected for Baker Lake."