BCI’s best heading to Canada-Wide Science Fair

In this April 11, 2016 photo provided by the Upper Canada District School Board, Caitlin Shaver and Bushra Khadra celebrate their Best of Fair awards at the Rideau-St. Lawrence Science Fair. The two will represent the area at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Montreal. (UCDSB via Newswatch Group)

BROCKVILLE – Two ninth-graders from Brockville Collegiate Institute are heading to the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Montreal.

Caitlin Shaver and Bushra Khadra won the Intermediate Physical Science Award and the Intermediate Chemistry Award on Friday, April 8, 2016.

They also took the title of Best of Fair at the Rideau-St. Lawrence Science Fair.

“It feels really nerve-wracking but at the same time fun and exciting,” Khadra said. “We didn’t think we would do that well. We kind of expected to get third or fourth place, but not first.”

The girls’ experiment shows how different dilutions of corn syrup and the molecules in it bent or “rotated” light. They proved the higher concentrations did, in fact, lead to more refraction of light.

Another BCI student – Prutha Patel – took second place overall for her experiment on how vitamin C is lost in the boiling process when cooking carrots. She will also be going to the nationals. Patel also picked up six other titles in the awards handed out.

Other award winners were Clark Bains, Izzy Carriere and Brendan Ly of Carleton Place High School and Sarah Jones and Emilee Harrison of BCI.

The Canada-Wide Science Fair is May 18-20, 2016 in Montreal.