Since 1962 there has been an annual gathering of young science students at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, staged in cities throughout the country.  This even is the culmination of a system of local, regional and then national competitions where students from grades 7 to 12 present their research to panels of judges.  The winners at local, often school levels, move on to Regional Science Fairs and, if successful at that level, win all-expenses paid trips to that year's Canada-Wide Competition.  Not only does this stimulate an interest in science among young people, it sets very high standards for those hoping to be successful at the various levels of the process.  The Canada-Wide Fairs are usually held on the campuses of universities in the host cities.  Winners at every level are presented with ribbons and medals but at Regional Fairs this often involved substantial additional prizes.  At the Canada-Wide level there are also scholarships and financial awards to be won.

For a number of years at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, A. B. Ellis staged in-school science fairs and sent forward winners to Regional Fairs that were usually held in High Schools in Espanola, Elliot Lake or Blind River. 















We remember five Canada-Wide Science Fairs that A. B. Ellis students attended.  The first was in 1979 when Rock Taylor took Bruce Wallace and Fraser MacDonald to London.  Then in 1987 he took Kim Clackett and Jason Cosby to Mississauga. 



In May of 1989 David Boardman and Debbie Merchant took Robbie Campbell, Kim Goodman, Jason Cosby, and three High School students to Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland.  In between the business of unpacking projects and setting up displays, school and public visits to view the projects, and judging sessions, there was much more.  The organizers had laid on cultural and social events and lots of field trips.  Christian Fielding and I went to Bay Bulls where we boarded a whale-watching boat for a windy and wild journey during which I think we were the only ones not to loose our breakfasts.  We had a number of sightings of basking and breaching humpback whales often gone again before we could point a camera.




 Later in the day we traveled by coach to see caribou feeding on the barrens.  The Newfoundland humour and hospitality was a treat to remember.  Robbie managed to leave his wallet with all of his money in it on a bus on the first day.  Remarkably, it was successfully retrieved intact because it was handed in to the driver.

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Regional Science Fair - Blind River






1982 - 1983






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Science Fair Photographs