South Fraser Regional Science Fair

The BC Hydro Powers Pioneers Award is awarded to a student(s) in Grades 4 – 12 who creates a project which creatively demonstrates electrical conservation and its environmental, social, and economic impacts. This award is presented by the respective Branch in each of the provincial regional fairs held around the province.

On April 9 the Pacific Branch had the opportunity to judge 11 projects at the South Fraser Regional Science Fair held at Kwantlen Polytech University in Surrey. Branch Vice President Warren Quan and Past President Ben Dobranowski were judges for this special Power Pioneers award.

The award was presented on April 10 to Abigail Rozmus, a grade 7 student from Southpointe Academy. Her project was entitled “Using Compost to Generate Heat.”

The purpose of her innovation was to find an environmentally friendly way to generate heat in water. She created her prototype to circulate water in tubing embedded in compost to have the compost’s core heat the circulating water. Her experiment was successful in heating the water. Her conclusion was that this concept could be developed to be a renewable energy source because if water could be heated sufficiently to create steam, then it could in turn be used to turn a turbine producing electricity through a generator and transformer.

Ben Dobranowski presenting Abigail with an award certificate and the Power Pioneers book, Voices From Bridge River. She will also receive a $100 cheque from the Regional Science Fair. In addition to our award, Abigail won an Environmental Award and the Junior Energy Award for her project.