Vaiala Beach School students really know their Science, and what’s more, they can tell you all about it.

This is the second year that the school has held a Science Fair and the quality of all their projects has really impressed the judges, the teachers, parents and peers.

There were 75 entries from Years 5, 6, 7 and 8 and each were given a timeframe of ten weeks to complete their projects.

Annie Meredith, the Year 8 teacher and organizer of the event was really proud of the students’ achievements.

“This is the second year we have had the Fair and we have extended it and made it better than last year.

“The quality of work is better this year because now they have had a year’s experience of working on projects so it’s definitely improved. 

“This year’s Science Fair was held over two days and what we did on Wednesday, was that all the students presented their projects to the panel of judges. That was just for our students, we didn’t invite parents, so it was just for us.

“Last year, the Fair was only on one day and they didn’t really have a lot of time to talk about their work because it was just such a busy day so what’s happened this year, on Wednesday every child stood up saying ‘This is my project, I had to find out this ….,’ you know that kind of stuff.”

“The students stood by their projects and all the younger students came up and again, they had to explain their project. We even got adults coming in.

“The judges were just so impressed with the quality so it was really great. 

According to Annie, there is no doubt that these students will be some of Samoa’s scientists in the future considering the quality of their work witnessed by the judges and everyone else who attended the event. 

“These are the future scientists of Samoa,” Annie said confidently. 

 “I would like to do it again and then approach some other schools and do a combined Samoan schools competition, I would love that to happen. I would also like to see it get more sponsorship.

 “This is a celebration of Science and students exploring parts of everyday life. It is about learning but more importantly sharing with others what you have found out. For students to stand by their projects and explain to teachers, parents and their peers what they have discovered, is when the learning becomes real. Students were proud of their work and some are already talking about what they will do next year.”

The judges were just as excited as the school to see how well the kids had worked to put their projects together and presented it extremely well to the public.

Christine Tuioti, a technical officer at Samoa Conservation Society who was one of the judges said, “As someone who works in the environmental organization, it’s really good to see the line of thinking and I’ve mentioned this yesterday after the presentations. 

It was great to see that you’re growing from your experiences.

Fellow judge, Cherelle Jackson from Conservation International, agreed commenting that the standard of the Year 7 projects were very high and it was not easy to pick the winner.

Principal, Lorraine Williams said she was proud of every student’s science project; whether they had received an award or not. In her eyes, every student deserved prizes for their work because they were really good.

One of the Year 7 students, Rosa Meredith was delighted with this year’s Science Fair and she is ready for next year.

“I like the Science Fair because I like doing a big project. 

Usually in school we have to write a story but I like doing the Science Fair because we get to actually get to do it and I like presenting my work. I have already started thinking a bit about what I’m going to do next year.”