A local student’s science experiment really grew on judges at the Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF) and was awarded for its ingenuity.
John Poole received CWSF’s Challenge Award for Discovery for his project that looks at the mechanism by which mushrooms can break down oil spills.
The Grade 10 student from Banff Community High School is the first in the district to receive the extraordinary prize – signifying the best project for age group and category in the nation.
“This Challenge Award is the best I’ve ever done and no one from our district has gotten the award before, so I’m super excited,” said Poole.
Poole, along with Lawrence Grassi Middle School students Mattias Gasser and Quinn Blythe, participated at CWSF in Regina from May 14-20, which brings science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) out of the classroom and engages youth in solutions to real world issues.
Two years ago was Poole’s first exposure to CWSF and its high-level national competition. It was about this time that Poole began thinking of his project, called ‘the effects of oil on mycelial production of lignin peroxidase (LiP)’.
Poole’s experiment, as abstracted on the CWSF website, probes how LiP produced by oyster mushroom mycelia change in a contaminated environment by growing samples in clean and contaminated substrates, extracting LiP and conducting LiP assays.
The results of Poole’s project showed that methods he developed in this experiment could be used on other lignin mineralizing enzymes, providing insight into fungal mechanisms in soil science and mycoremediation.
“The coolest thing I saw over time was the amount of the enzyme decrease even though the mushroom was growing,” said Poole.
Poole was also awarded bronze in the intermediate excellence category for his project, while Gasser received bronze in the junior excellence category for his project that explores the effects of magnets, belt tensions and multiple belt materials on the electrical output of a homemade wind belt.
Along with the bronze medals, Poole and Gasser received two $1,000 entrance scholarships to Western University in Ontario, should they choose to accept it.
“Youth can innovate, youth can make incredible science discoveries,” said Poole.
“I think more people should realize that if you have an idea and you’re able to get in contact with someone at a university, because a lot of people are willing to help motivated high school students, you can do really awesome things.”
