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Pyramid shows its power

Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Dec 07/05) - When all was said and done, 38 other projects couldn't match the power of the pyramid at the annual Maani Ulujuk Science Fair in Rankin Inlet this past month.

NNSL Photo/graphic

Brianna Rempel of Rankin Inlet took first place honours for her Pyramid Power project at the 2005 Maani Ulujuk High Science Fair. Missing the from photo is Brianna's partner on the project, Paj Kusugak. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo


Brianna Rempel and Paj Kusugak took top honours for their project, Pyramid Power, while Kyra Nokkitok and Amelia Ipkornerk took second place for their effort, Which Thread is Strongest?

Kayla Bruce and Jamila Gordon took third place for Weather of the Past, Present and Future, while the duo of James Merritt and Robbie Pilakapsi won the Northern Theme Award for their project, How Alcohol affects the North.

The four students with the top two projects will now advance to the Kivalliq Regional Science Fair in Whale Cove this coming March.

Rempel says Pyramid Power was an intriguing project to work on.

"It's always really interesting when you do a project like this and it actually works," says Rempel.

"The plant we grew under the pyramid grew much bigger and faster than the other plants in our project."

Science teacher Sue Denison was pleased by the number of projects submitted for this year's fair. Denison says there would have been more projects entered if all the academic classes could have participated.

She says classes not doing science this semester couldn't submit fair projects.

"When we were at the old school, we tried to schedule the academic classes for the same time as the science fair," explains Denison.

"But now that we're in a larger school with Grade 7 to 12, you can't schedule science for everyone in the same semester.

"You have to spread out the courses more among the people who teach them.

"The projects this year came from Grade 7, general Grade 8 and 9 and one academic Grade 10 class."

Denison says there were no Grade 11 or 12 submissions because of the demands on those students to prepare for their departmental exams and pass their courses.

She says the trials for the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) also played a role.

"The trials for the AWG has kids missing time as it is and they couldn't really afford to take any more time out of their schedules to participate in the fair.

"Next year we hope to schedule different classes around the fair so everyone gets a chance to participate during a two-year period."