Three students from the Hazlet School were in Ottawa representing the southwest last week at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. 

Grade 12 student Cassandra Benson and her 'Starving Your Brain' project and Grade 12 student Braelynne Heck and Grade 11 student Sophia Antoniuk and their 'Helping Hand' project were just two of the 407 projects at the national competition.

The 'Starving Your Brain' project was a study on how not eating for short periods of time can impact certain mental skills. Participants in the project were asked to refrain from eating for 24 hours and were given simples test at the start of the 24 hours, after 12 hours, and after the entire 24 hours.

The Helping Hand project saw the two students build a myoelectric prosthetic hand. What that means is when an amputee contracts the muscles on their stump and an electrical gradient is created on their skin. The gradient is picked up by the myoelectric sensor which sends a signal to the circuit board to move the band.

Wade Caswell is the science teacher at Hazlet School and travelled with the students to Ottawa.

He said that though the kids weren't able to take home first prize, just getting to nationals is an accomplishment.

"Getting to that level is an achievement," he said. "It's Canada-Wide. 400 projects from all across Canada so to be even able to go there and be apart of that is a significant accomplishment and something that they should definitely be proud of and I certainly am proud of them as their teacher."

Caswell said that it was nice for the students to not only be successful but gain some great experience at the same time. 

"I think the experience is so important because in science class it's often you learn about the science that has already done," he said. "You don't really do any science yourself and what the science fair offers is that opportunity to be a scientist for a little while. To be able to answer a question that you have, a question that you're interested in. Through that scientific method, it can be a very powerful thing to see in action, just how powerful a tool science can be."

 This isn't Caswell's first time taking students to nationals, as he's made four previous trips to the science fair.

"It's always exciting to see a project move onto the Canada-Wide Science Fair," he said. "I think for them it means an opportunity to see other bright science projects and other bright scientists at their age level from across Canada. I think it's a really enlightening experience for most kids when they get there. It's a week of nothing but science and not everybody is going to be a scientist, but it doesn't hurt to experience the world a little bit either."

 Caswell added that the students did well and represented themselves well on the national stage.

 For both Braelynne Heck and Cassandra Benson they will graduate this year and move on, but for Sophia Antoniuk, she plans to expand their 'Helping Hand' project for next year.