Day 8 - The Voyage Home

Everybody is home safe and sound... it was a long travel day today, with everyone out of their rooms and ready to board the buses by 6:00am.

It was a two and a half hour bus trip to the Calgary airport, then a short chance to grab lunch, and on to our flight... which included a short stopover in Winnipeg on the way home.  Happy to say that nobody got left in Manitoba accidentally, and we all arrived safe and sound on Saturday night.


And that's it for the Canada-Wide Science Fair for another year.  Fantastic results with 11 of our team coming home with medals.  The entire team worked very hard and had great projects, and even more than that all of the team were terrific representatives for our region and for their schools.

A reminder that you can get more information by following Team BASEF:
 Facebook  www.facebook.com/teambasef
 Flickr (high resolution pictures) www.flickr.com/photos/team-basef/sets/72157633438750758/with/8752561392/
 Twitter  www.twitter.com/basef

All of us chaperones, and in fact all of the BASEF organizers and volunteers, are so very proud of the students on this team.  Thank you all for being respectful, funny, hard-working, and just plain amazing. It was a privilege spending the week with all of you, and best wishes wherever your future endeavors take you.
-- George.

Day 7 - Public Viewing and Packing Up

Before things wrap up, there was one more morning of public viewing and school tours.

 

 

 After that was done, it was time to take down our projects and start packing up.

One more event in the week - a trip to Downtown Lethbridge, with a party in the park just for CWSF students.  This was a great opportunity for the team to relax a bit, and some of them even decided to learn western line dancing...

 

 Then it was off to the restaurant that Stephanie found for us, "Mocha Cabana", a great little place the specializes in local foods and dishes.  The dinner was terrific, and everyone had quite a share!

 

 We wandered a little more around downtown Lethbridge, including a visit to the mall to get some ice cream, and then it was back to the campus for a final event in the participant's lounge.

 

 Once that finished, it was time to settle down and pack up... and prepare for our 6:30am bus ride on Saturday!

Day 6 - Awards Ceremony and Banquet!

Today is the big event, the Awards Ceremony.  But first, there was another morning session of public viewing with VIP, media and school tours.

 

 After that it was off to lunch, and then cleaning up and getting ready to travel to the Awards.

In just a short while, the awards presentations began, and some of the hard work of BASEF students was rewarded...

Special Awards:

 CHALLENGE AWARD – Catharine Bowman (HWCDSB - St. Mary Secondary School, Hamilton)

Merit Awards:

GOLD –
Catharine Bowman (HWCDSB - St. Mary Secondary School, Hamilton)

SILVER –
Alex Tomala (HWCDSB - Cardinal Newman Secondary School, Stoney Creek)
Ishan Aditya (Independent - MacLachlan College, Oakville)
Jason Fan (HWDSB – Westdale Secondary School, Hamilton)

BRONZE –
Graham Bohm (HWCDSB - St. Augustine Catholic Elementary School, Dundas)
Katie Brent (HCDSB - Notre Dame Secondary School, Burlington)
Eduard Brenninkmeijer (Independent - Oakville Christian School, Oakville)
Blake Correia (Independent - Oakville Christian School, Oakville)
Mycah DeJong (Independent - Trinity Christian School, Burlington)
Caroline Mahut (HDSB, Rolling Meadows Public School, Burlington)
Theo Willows (HDSB - John William Boich Public School, Burlington)

 

 After the Awards Ceremony, it was time for the Awards banquet dinner, and then back to the university campus for the awards-day Dance!

Congratulations to all the Medal Winners, and also to the entire Team for their great projects and hard work.  All of you are superb ambassadors for our region and your schools, and you have all done us proud.

Day 5 - Tour Day

Today was tour day - all CWSF participants go on a tour of Southwest Alberta.

After breakfast and the "Team Ontario" picture in the morning (with all the other teams from Ontario), it was on to the bus and heading for the mountains!

 

 Our first stop was Waterton National Park in the Rocky Mountains.  The team eagerly participated in various hikes, and the general consensus was that we could have spent a lot more time there.  The views were great, and so was the weather!

After that we were off to the "Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump" World Heritage Site, a native site and interpretive centre that was very interesting.

Our final stop was the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre, which specializes in protecting and rehabilitating injured birds and recovering species.  The eagle demonstrations were very popular, as were the other displays and birds at the centre.

In the evening, a number of different events - a trip to the local dairy queen, some time in the participants lounge, and just sitting around talking ...  then it was off to bed, in preparation for tomorrow's public viewing, followed by the Awards Ceremony and Awards Banquet!

The welcome from the University staff and the people in Lethbridge has been great, with a large dose of that famous western hospitality.

Still lots more excitement to come!

Day 4 - Judging Day!

Today was the day to get down to work - Judging Day!

Everyone was up a little bit earlier to grab breakfast, and then it was time to change into the nice clothes to impress the judges.  At 8:30am it was off to the Project Hall for the first judging sessions.

When the time arrived for lunch, the main judging section (medals and challenge awards) had been completed... and the mood was certainly upbeat among the team. Most of the judges were reported to be polite and easy to talk to, with a lot of good interviews taking place.  Many of the judges were very interested in the projects and students they interviewed, and it appears that the team had pretty good experiences as part of judging.  But nothing beats finally getting the worry of the main interviews behind you!

 

After lunch it was back for the "Special Awards" judging, which is different depending upon the types of projects involved... some students had dozens of short interviews, others only had a few.  By 5:30pm, all the interviews were done, and the "tough part" of the week was behind us.

 

After dinner everyone had some options, either to movie night (a number of movies were being shown), or else going on (of course) another hike outside.

 

With the pressure off nobody really wanted to get to bed early, but tomorrow has the earliest morning wake-up time yet, having to be at breakfast at 7:00am to get ready for our tour day of SouthWestern Alberta!