Caroline Huang is a 16-year-old Grade 10 student at Abbey Park High School, but she could pass for a graduate student if you ask her about flood dynamics in Southeast Asia.
The science whiz says she didn’t know much about hydrology, probability, statistics or percolation theory at the beginning of the year. Still, thanks to months of effort researching flood risk for this year’s science fair entry, she can now speak confidently on those topics.
Her impressive project, "Predicting Mechanisms of Flood Vulnerability for Southeast Asia using Statistical Percolation Theory” won her a dozen awards at the 61st annual Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair in April. She won cash prizes totalling $2,400 and one of just five tickets to compete at the prestigious Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in the United States this month.
If your eyes are glazing over at the title, you’re not alone. Huang says she was surprised by how interested she became in soils and hydrology after getting drawn to the topic by news of the devastating floods that affected Asian Pacific countries in 2020.
“I was born in Canada, but I wanted to do a project that connected me to my heritage,” Caroline reflects. “My parents are both from China, so there’s kind of that heritage I wanted to focus on. The (flood) events of 2020 are a problem that resonated with me. I was really surprised I was interested in (hydrology), but the more I looked into it, the more interesting it got. Now I can say I am really interested in soil.”
The project required no special equipment other than a computer capable of processing large amounts of data. Fortunately, Caroline had equipped herself with just such a computer with the help of her prize money from last year’s BASEF event, where her project about slime mould won $1,350 in prizes.
Caroline learned the basics of how to do a science fair project when she was a student at W.H. Morden elementary, although her first project completed for her Grade 8 year didn’t place at the school level. Still, she was smitten by the science fair bug. Although her current school doesn't have a science fair program, she filled the paperwork out herself to get herself admitted to BASEF.
“Science fair is one of my favourite extracurriculars,” she says. “Whatever I read or learn in class, I’m thinking about the potential for a future science fair project.”
The BASEF event is open to Grades 7 to 12 students from the Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Milton, and surrounding counties and Six Nations. Although there is no entry fee, the fair disburses hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, trips, and scholarships every year thanks to the many private, corporate and institutional sponsors. The 2020 BASEF event coincided with the beginning of the pandemic, but organizers moved the event online.
On the plus side, the odds of winning some fantastic prizes may have improved for the students who still managed to participate. In 2020, 220 students entered -- less than half of a typical year. In 2021, 180 students entered 133 projects. Of these, 73 students were from Oakville, representing 11 Oakville schools, with 42 of these local students going on to win some of the $150,000 in prizes disbursed this year.
Halton District School Board students who were awarded Canada Wide Science Fair Awards included:
- Harini Karthik and Echo Chen, both Grade 11, Garth Webb Secondary School, for their project, ‘’Aerodynamic Performance and Structural Engineering of Helicopter Seeds for Wind Turbines (HeliSpin)”
- Jeffrey Klinck, Grade 10, Oakville Trafalgar High School, for “A Novel Innovation to Aid People with Deafness via Haptic Feedback Relative to Surroundings”
- Sabrina Mogus, Grade 11, Garth Webb Secondary School, for her project, “ViQ: A Wearable Sonic Vibrotactile Stimulation and Cueing Device for Individuals with Parkinson’s”
- Vihaan Vashishtha, Grade 7, W. H. Morden Public School, “Can we grow plants on Mars?”
“So many people and companies are invested in our learning, I think is really inspiring,” says Caroline.
Caroline’s advice for kids just starting out in the science fair is to stay curious and not get discouraged if a topic feels challenging to learn. “You’ll face unfamiliar challenges, but I think it’s important to be able to say I don’t know about this now,” she says. “It might be hard to understand, but little by little, I got to know more about the topics I was covering in my project. I took a challenge, and I think it paid off. “
Caroline’s proud father, Tony Huang, says that although he and his wife are both computer scientists, they don’t do all that much to encourage their daughter’s pursuits, other than pay the odd bill here and there -- like $80 for 3D printing time at the library for last year’s slime mold project.
“I believe she got all this passion by herself, to be honest,” Tony says. “I know she learns a lot of things herself. I’m a computer guy, but I never do machine learning. She figures out everything by herself.”
He says he’s not sure where her motivation comes from, he’s just happy Caroline and his younger daughter get along well and do their own things.
“Our parents pushed us so hard. When we came to Canada, we wanted (our kids) to take it easy,” he says.
Tony does have one good book recommendation, though -- “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. He says Caroline read “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens,” which helped her manage her time -- not just for the science fair. “She has a lot of hobbies,” Tony says. “She’s pretty good at piano. She used to spend a lot of time skating. Then after a certain time, she changed to swimming. When she was 15 years old, she had a few piano students, and she tutored math before Covid-19.”
Anyone interested in checking out the science fair is invited to the virtual Canada Wide Science Fair 2021, which is open to visitors May 19-21. Sign up here. There is no need to be affiliated with any school or student.