Volcanoes and paper planes . . . People’s Cathedral Primary holds annual science fair

Science – the objective study of God’s creation is the theme of this year’s annual Science Fair held at the People’s Cathedral Primary School.

Science teacher at the school Peter Farnum told Barbados TODAY the fair which caters to children between preschool and Class 2, is done to show the students evidence of God’s creation all around them. “The physical world bears testimony to the existence of a God, and many scientists are believers because of that. As part of learning, the students do projects where they have to do some type of experiment. We don’t focus on taking things from books but allow them to investigate and find things out for themselves.”

One of the more notable experiments was by Class 2 student Yohance Jones who gave a timely demonstration of handwashing techniques in the wake of the current Covid-19 pandemic. “I call my experiment Hide and seek germs, because I wanted to see how many germs remain on people’s hands after they wash them. So I had people wash their hands and then I shone a light on them, and if the light was green, it meant germs were still present. After that, I handed out a guide to show them the correct handwashing techniques.”

Other interesting experiments included one by Phoebe Ekpirigin, who showed the effects of soil erosion; Vannah Pitt demonstrated the two different types of volcano, effusive and infusive, while Josiah Griffith did an experiment with two different types of paper planes to show which one flew better, and used a home video in his presentation. The Reception Class was very eager to talk about their project on the water cycle, where they showed drawings they did in class to demonstrate its various elements.

Farnum said while the experiments, for the most part, were based on what the students learned in class, they were encouraged to be creative as well. “We encouraged them to take ideas out of the curriculum, to go through what they had done in class and their textbooks and pull out ideas from them. But we do not discourage creativity and we don’t stop them going outside the box if they want to, because, for example, coronavirus was not on the curriculum when it was written, but someone still did something that touched on that area.”

He extended an invitation to other primary and secondary schools to visit the exhibition, which continues tomorrow at the school’s Bishop’s Court Hill compound. (DH)