July 22, 2016
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Nathan Williams of Kincardine (above) won gold at the Bluewater District School Board regional science fair competition in Owen Sound in April, making him eligible for the national competition, held May 14-21, in Montreal.
And it was a fantastic experience, he said.
The Grade 8 graduate of Ecole Elgin Market Public School, Kincardine, said it was pretty awesome to be chosen for the Canada-wide Science Fair, and while he was a bit nervous about it all, he was also very excited.
He travelled to Montreal by bus with a group, including two other regional winners from the Bluewater board, and three from the Grey-Bruce Catholic District School Board, as well as two chaperones.
His parents, Brent and Wendy Williams, arrived later for the days when the public was allowed to view the science fair projects.
"We stayed in the student residence at McGill University," said Nathan, "and they had some fun activities for us to do. The first day, we climbed Mount Royal; the second day, we set up our projects, and then we had the opening ceremonies. There were 485 students there from across Canada."
The third day, was the judging of the projects. Nathan's was judged eight times by nine judges. "I had to do my presentation eight times and then answer questions. The judges were familiar with my field - there was even one who worked on the Canada Arm."
There are three platinum medals and 10 golds presented in each category, and the Bluewater contingent won two gold, one platinum, one silver and three special awards (out of nine).
While Nathan ended up in the middle of the pack, as far as scoring went, he was thrilled for the opportunity to attend such an amazing event.
"There were three days of public viewing, and on the second day, astronaut Chris Hatfield spoke," said Nathan. "He said the odds of making it to the Canada-wide Science Fair, are about the same as for him becoming an astronaut - about one in 4,000."
The students had one final day when they packed up their projects and then enjoyed a cruise on the St. Lawrence River.
The road to Nathan's arrival at the national science fair was an unexpectedly bumpy one. He wanted to expand his project a bit before taking it to Montreal. However, the day before he found out he had been selected to go to the event, he suffered a concussion at a hockey game, and needed two weeks of rest. The national science fair was only three weeks away, and his family was going to Florida for a week.
Fortunately, Nathan was able to improve on his project in time for the Canada-wide Science Fair.
His project, called "To Gyro or Not To Gyro," tested the reliability of a robot's turning ability using a Gyroscope. He got the idea from the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) event in November, 2015, in Kincardine, when the question was asked whether a robot could turn better using a Gyroscope.
He conducted eight experiments - half using the Gyroscope and half not - to figure out which would turn a 90-degree angle the best.
"What I found was that with the Gyroscope, the robot worked better, but not all the time," said Nathan who wrote all the computer programs to do the experiments.
"My conclusion was that it's better not to use the Gyroscope for an FLL robot," he said, "but the Gyroscope has its uses, such as in manufacturing."
Nathan's father, Brent, said the Montreal event was quite fascinating. "The lecture series was good, but being in a room with 485 incredible science fair projects, well, that was mind-blowing."
He noted that a student from Fort McMurray, Alberta, lost half his project in the fires that ravaged that city. The organizers asked the other students to donate what they could to help this student continue to compete.
Nathan is going into Grade 9 at Kincardine District Secondary School in the fall, and plans to join the Kinetic Knights Robotics FRC Team 781, and continue his interest in robotics programming and engineering.
For more information about Nathan and his project, visit the following link:
Nathan Williams (back right, in white shirt), with his project, "To Gyro or Not To Gyro," at the Canada-wide Science Fair in Montreal; photos courtesy of Brent Williams
Written ByLiz Dadson is the founder and editor of the Kincardine Record and has been in the news business since 1986.
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