By Tom Bannister

Seventy-eight Somerville High School students representing 45 projects competed in this year’s Science and Engineering fair, hosted by the Somerville High School Science Department on Thursday, March 5.

Students from every grade level work on a project for several months, which allows them to explore ideas and curiosities they have about a science topic of their choice. It also gives students an opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge of the scientific method and engineering design process that they have gained in their classes to an authentic scientific problem. Projects and presentations were judged by 19 judges from various universities and industries including Artisan’s Asylum, Beryllium, Biogen IDEC, Re-Seed, Sigma-Aldrich, and Tufts University.

Students were also able to showcase their work and knowledge at the first-ever Science and Engineering Fair Exhibition Night, held that evening at Somerville High.

Parents, teachers, and community members toured the projects and listened to students present their research and discuss their findings.

While all of the projects reflect the students’ hard work and effort, only those projects earning the highest scores advance to the Region IV Science and Engineering Fair where they compete against other high school winners from all over northern Massachusetts for entry into the State Science and Engineering Fair held at MIT in May.

The Region IV Science and Engineering Fair will take place at Somerville High School on Saturday, March 14th, 9:00am to noon at the SHS Field House. Winners of local school fairs will compete at Region IV for an opportunity to advance to the Massachusetts State Science Fair at MIT in May. Judging for the March 14 competition at Somerville High School will be from 9 a.m. to noon.

Exhibits will be open for public viewing from 1-3 p.m., and the Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place from 3-4 p.m. Six Regional Science Fairs serve as qualifying competitions for the May state event.