Chemicals, compounds and chromosomes will be on full display at this weekend's 46th annual Lambton County Science Fair.
The two-day event gets underway Friday night and wraps up Saturday afternoon in the old Lambton College gymnasium.
Spokesperson Peter Smith said Grades 3-12 students will be competing for $5,000 in prizes, and around 100 projects will be on display.
"Last year we got 96 projects -- that gymnasium is pretty much full at that point, so we're right next to capacity which is absolutely great," said Smith. "We've seen a huge growth over the past 10 years, and we just love the fact that so many more students are involved in science and enjoying science."
The local science fair is one of few that remain in Ontario.
Smith said many schools just don't have the resources to continue their science fairs. He said Sarnia-Lambton is very fortunate to have such great community support.
"What it takes to run a fair like this is we have to fundraise about $25,000 a year, and we have to get about 100 judges to come in and go through all of these projects for us," said Smith. "We need a dedicated organizing team, we need somewhere to do it that's large enough, and a lot of communities just don't have those kind of resources behind them."
Smith said each year the projects seem to get better and better, but even he doesn't know what's on tap for this year.
He said many students are using the element of surprise.
"It's still a wait-and-see. You know the students are very secretive about their projects, some to the extent that they don't even want to put down the title of their project," said Smith. "It's quite competitive -- they're competing against each other for $5,000 in prizes, so it's going to be a surprise for all of us."
Smith said in the past, a number of students young and old have really impressed the judges.
"We've had everything from an artificial heart pump, a device for measuring blood-sugar content online -- a number of things like that," said Smith. "Frankly, you look and think these are the things that come out of large research institutes, and here's somebody that's done the research themselves, put together the results and come up with a credible design."
Smith said the free event is open to the public. He's encouraging everyone in the community to come check it out.
"Come on in and take a look around because you will be amazed by the level of science that's taking place, and the students just love talking to people about what they've done and what they've learned."
The event goes Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and continues Saturday at 9 a.m. with the awards ceremony set for 1 p.m.
