Research teachers eye Science Fair

As first semester comes to an end, students in science research are just starting the testing portion of their projects. Teachers Mary Schropp and Paula Ladd are helping their students prepare for the competition in February.

Schropp and Ladd already have “potentially 10 to 15 great projects” from high-schoolers.

“There’s 13 different categories the kids compete in, one of them being Biomedical Health Sciences and other one being Cellular Molecular Bio and biochemistry … ,” Schropp said. “And we have a lot of really good kids, but if we have [some in the same category], they’re going to have to compete against each other, which we hate to see … We would like to see [all of them] win a bit for state.”

This year, students will be placed in South Fair which would be held at the Melbourne Square Mall.

“We will be competing against Mel High who won last year … 10 out of the 13 first places …” Schropp said “We haven’t competed against them in probably about 10 years … so we don’t know what they bring.”

In the previous fairs, 75 percent of those competing were West Shore students.

“I don’t know how it will go this year. We have a lot of really strong biological projects,” Schropp said.

“For sure, we’re going to take a lot of firsts,” Ladd said. “I really do think we’re going to.”

By Laura Shelton