Students Take Tar Ponds Research to National Science Fair

Students from two Cape Breton school boards will compete at the national science fair with projects on the Sydney Tar Ponds.

Joanna McNeil, a senior at Richmond Academy in Louisdale, was the big winner at the Strait Richmond Regional Science Fair. Her project on microbiological activity in the Tar Ponds took nine of 11 prizes in her division.

Sheralynne Deveaux, a Grade 11 student at Riverview High School in Coxheath, placed first at the Cape Breton Victoria Regional Science Fair on March 31. She studied minnows in the Tar Ponds, to see whether they differ from minnows in unpolluted waterways nearby.

Joanna also won one of 15 Toyota Earth Day scholarships, valued at $5,000. The award recognized "demonstrated excellence in your environmental community service, academic achievements, and extracurricular activities."

The award puts her in the running for the national outstanding environmental achievement award, to be presented later this month in Toronto.

Joanna said winning the gold medal is a dream come true. "I've always wanted to go to the nationals," she said. "To get to go in my senior year is pretty exciting."

Joanna credited mentors at Cape Breton University for her success. She plans to study biology next year, though she is not sure which university she will attend.

Sheralynne will be making her second trip to the national science fair. Last year, in Vancouver, she placed fourth, a mark she hopes to better this time.

Her project involved precise measurements of fish to see how much an eye or a fin on one side differed in size from those on the other. Side-to-side differences can be a sign of environmental stress.

Martha Jones, a biology professor at Cape Breton University, supervised her project.

"I will make some changes to my project before the nationals," Sheralynne said. "I want to freshen up some of the data, and maybe place higher than last year."

Staff of the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency provided the students, who will compete in different divisions, with supervised access to the cleanup site for the projects. The Canada-Wide Science Fair, sponsored by the Youth Science Foundation Canada, will be held next month in Saguenay, Que.