One of many displays at the Central Interior Science Exhibition. This one demonstrated the effects of liquid nitrogen on certain objects like flowers and vegetables

By Tommy Osborne

UNBC Science

46th annual Central Interior Science Exhibition held at UNBC

Mar 9, 2024 | 4:42 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – UNBC was full of activity on Saturday afternoon, as the Bentley Centre was packed with students demonstrating a wide variety of research topics for the 46th annual Central Interior Science Exhibition.

School District 91, 57, and 28 all come together for the exhibit, and this year featured many different topics that students researched.

“We have everything from kids trying to build LED lights — they’re using magnetic induction to run LED lights — to people studying the inner cores of atoms, to how to do the best composting. They’re all over the place, and it’s amazing what we get from from young scientists these days,” said Todd Whitcombe, the Chair of the Central Interior Science Exhibition.

Beyond being a fun and engaging way for students to engage with the scientific process, Whitcombe added this exhibition also serves as a springboard to compete in the Canada Wide Science Fair in Ottawa later this year, as the judges will choose five students to compete at the national level. Beyond being both the chair and a judge in the Central Interior Science Exhibition, Whitcombe is also a professor at UNBC, and he says science education has improved dramatically over the years.

“I’m not sure that I knew anything about quantum mechanics when I was 12 or 13 years old, but certainly this is where we’re at with kids. I teach the equivalent of seven Nobel Prizes in my second year (university) chemistry courses — and that is if you took what you learn in those classes and went back in time 100 years, we would win seven Nobel Prizes. And that’s just second year chemistry. So we have very, very smart kids and it’s wonderful to see them doing and enjoying science,” Whitcombe said.

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