Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back. The 67th annual STEM Fair at North Quincy High School is taking place tomorrow. That's science, technology, engineering, and math. And no, that's not a mistake. 67 years. So a science department head, Claire Boutroux from North Quincy High, is here with us to give us a little history lesson about the science fair. Claire, great to meet you.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Thank you for having me.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: When we talked before the program this morning, and I said, 67 must be a mistake. Right. And you said, oh, no, that's the right number. Yeah. Give us a little history, if you can, about this event and how it all got started.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: So from what I know from talking with people in the community, the STEM fair was started 1959 by Wilma Shields, who was the department chair at North Quincy, I guess, back then.
And she ran the STEM fair for many years before Mary Young took over, who was another department head who was very strongly involved in STEM fair.
So here we are, 67 years later.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Started as just the science fair, Right?
[00:01:12] Speaker B: It was a science fair initially, yes.
And then recently it has kind of evolved to be more comprehensive, so. Including the technology, engineering, and math as well.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Sure. Tell me a little bit about yourself, Claire, and your history at North.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: So I have been at north now. This is my fifth year at North.
I've been in Quincy public schools for 26 years. So I was at Quincy High School before I moved over to North.
I am the science department chair over there.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: So.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: I teach and then have some admin responsibilities as well.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Sure. And what does the science department consist of at North Quincy High School?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: So we have 15 teachers.
We have biology classes, chemistry, physics, and then we have electives for upperclassmen. So we have AP classes.
Zoology, marine science, forensics, environmental science. There's a wide range of classes that students can take.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah. For all grade levels.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: All grade levels. So we start the freshmen and sophomores would do biology and then chemistry, and then junior, senior year, they can do physics or elective sciences. They can go on and take those AP classes if they want. We also have a strong EL program for our English language learners, so they have a similar pathway, but there's more focus on helping them with language.
So. So, yeah, we have a wide variety of classes. Something to fit everyone.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Speaking of English language, I detect a bit of an accent in yours. You're not from here originally, are you?
[00:03:02] Speaker B: I'm not, no. I came over here 2000 from Scotland.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: Originally from Scotland and right to Quincy, or where did your path take you?
[00:03:13] Speaker B: I came from Glasgow, Scotland, to Quincy, Massachusetts.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Okay. And started teaching did you teach in Scotland prior?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: I did not. I did my student teaching and I did teach degree in Scotland and then when I finished that degree, I came over here and started teaching for Quincy Public Schools.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: And why science, Claire? What is it about science that you love?
[00:03:36] Speaker B: I love the whole process.
My background is in immunology, so the body.
So I just think it's fascinating learning all about how the body works and discovering more.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Now, have you been in charge of the STEM fair since you came to North?
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: The past five years you've been running it. What is the STEM fair now? What does it consist of?
[00:04:04] Speaker B: So we have, for this year we have 130 students who are presenting their projects. So they have been working since September and they come up with a topic that they are interested about.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: I was going to ask about that if they were assigned a topic, but.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: No, they can pick anything. Usually it works best if it's something that they're interested in because they're going to be more involved in the process.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Like you would pick immunology, right. If it were you. But another student might pick biology or marine science or whatever.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: So something that they're interested in usually works the best.
And they figure out what their question is, what they're trying to find out and answer, and then they go through. They have to figure out how to set up experiments, run those experiments, deal with anything that happens. So when things go wrong, they have to be able to go back and look and see what happened, try fix it, and then run the experiment again, look at all their data, show what their data tells them, and then they have to put that together in a presentation.
So on STEM fair night, judges will come in, they have those trifold boards.
The last few days, I've seen kids walking around North Quincy with the boards.
So they present all that information on the boards and then they have to talk with the judges about their research, and judges will ask them questions, and then the judges will have a rubric that they're filling out based on their presentations. So it's pretty involved.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Well, it's really starting from nothing, though. I mean, this is more than just science skills that they need. They need organizational skills, right. Research skills, communication skills even, just to come up with a topic and then come up with questions to ask about the topic and what problem to solve. So it's much more than just dropping some baking soda into a glass of water and seeing it bubble over, right? It's much more than that, yeah. Is it a requirement?
[00:06:08] Speaker B: So our advanced level students, it's a requirement for students in advanced level biology and chemistry. So freshmen and sophomores, ninth and 10th graders who are in biology and chemistry have to take it as part of the class.
And then we do have some students that are taking it just for fun. Like they like being involved in STEM Fair and looking at the possibilities of advancing. So we have a handful of students that are doing it just for fun.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Great. Great. Now, have you had an early peek at any of the projects? Can you give us kind of a preview?
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Yes. So there are.
There's one student who's doing a project about protein build up in the brain and how that can lead to Alzheimer's and then looking into some treatments for Alzheimer's.
We have a student who is looking at ocean acidification and how that affects the shells of blue crabs.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: And then we have another student who's looking at cold proofing your sourdough.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: We have a wide variety of topics.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Right. And I'm sure you have seen many over the years. Right. Are there any that stand out that have kind of, you know, gone on to, I don't say make a new invention, but at least allowed for further study of a topic?
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So we had a student two years ago, Anna, who advanced to the International STEM Fair. She did a project on microalgae and how it affects ocean acidification. So she has gone pretty far. There were a lot of people at the regional and state level who were very impressed with her project.
She made it to the International STEM Fair as well and had opportunities to work with local researchers and companies.
So, yeah, it's a good opportunity for kids for sure.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: And who knows where it could lead to in the future. So that brings up another interesting point. It's not just local. There's regional, national, and then international.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: There's a regional fair. So we are in region five. So our regional fair takes place at Bridgewater State College.
So region five is kind of Southeast Massachusetts, Church, Cape and the Islands.
So the top 10 projects from each school can advance to that Region 5 fair.
And then from the Region 5 fair, projects are then advanced onto the Massachusetts State Fair, which happens in April.
And then from the state fair, students can advance to the international fair, which will be in.
That's in May, and it's going to be in Arizona. So there's kids from Scotland, 70 countries that compete at the international fair.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Wow. Do you know if anybody from north ever gone that far?
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah, we have two students in the last four years have advanced to the international level and many before that. But I don't know the stats before that.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Can we talk a little bit about the event tomorrow? It's from 5:30 to 8:30 in the cafeteria at North.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: So what will be happening?
[00:09:28] Speaker B: So 5:30 students will be ready to present their projects. Families are wanting to come and see their students projects. They can come between 5 and 5:30 and then again between 8 and 8:30.
So between 5:30 and 8, we close the STEM fair just for judging.
So judges are going around talking to the students. Students are presenting their work, answering the questions.
We hope that each student is going to get judged three or four times.
And then we collate all the results and take a look. And we then designate a first, second, third place winner.
And then we have positions four through ten get honorable mention.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Okay. And they know that night, tomorrow night, that whether or not they don't know right away.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Okay. Oh, that's a while. It takes us a while to go through. They should know by the end of the week.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: End of the week. Okay.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: End of the week. They should know. Yes.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: Okay. Who are the judges, Claire? Who's judges?
[00:10:35] Speaker B: So judges we have. They're all volunteers, so they're giving up their time to come and help us out.
Some of the judges have been doing the STEM fair for years, so they are just repeat judges that keep coming back.
Some of the judges are retired teachers or staff from Quincy Public Schools. We have some engineers coming from local companies. We have people from biotech industry nearby. And then we have people that just signed up and were interested. So we have a wide range of people coming.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Okay. And there's room for more judges perhaps?
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. We always need judges.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Okay. So reach out to you at north to sign up to be a judge.
What do they win? Do they win a prize?
[00:11:21] Speaker B: So they win cash prizes which they can use however they want.
Sometimes students will use it to reimburse. If they've bought supplies for their projects, they can use that money to kind of reimburse themselves. Sometimes they might just go out and get something for fun to treat themselves right.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: You have a lot of local sponsors that have. That have helped out to offer the prizes, right?
[00:11:46] Speaker B: We do, yes. We're very grateful to the sponsors that help us pull this off.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Yeah, that's wonderful.
What does kind of the future hold for a STEM career, Claire? You know, where can folks take the knowledge that they've gained throughout North Quincy High School and through this fair and then further their education or maybe make a career out of their.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Yeah, so I think the beauty with STEM is that you don't have to go into science or technology, engineering, math, with a STEM background.
Some of the skills that students are getting through this process, Communication, presentation skills, data analysis, team building. Right, team building, being able to problem solve, critical thinking. I mean, those are skills that any employer would be looking for.
They don't have to stay in STEM if they do stay in stem. I mean, STEM is a great career to get into. I think at the moment it's one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: The healthcare industry, for certain.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Right, yeah. Because it intersects with so much other stuff. Right.
Biotech, environmental issues.
So there's lots of jobs out there.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Renewable energy, perhaps in an emerging field as well.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: AI.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: AI. I was going to ask about AI if it's going to show its face at the STEM fair this year.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Yes. We do have a project where a student is looking at AI hallucinations and comparing different AI platforms and looking at the rate of hallucinations with AI. So, yeah, there's a few AI projects in there as well.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah. It must fascinate you to see the creativity that these kids come up with and the interests that they have.
Trying to think way back to my high school years, I don't think I had that.
So for you to see, it must be very rewarding as a teacher.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is. It's fantastic. One of the best things about teaching is, you know, seeing the moment where kids, you know, everything falls into place and they understand.
So it's really cool seeing that through that process.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Now, during the fair itself, are there actual extra experiments that are happening or is it just kind of a presentation.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Of what the project was? It's a presentation. Some of the students will bring in some of the supplies that they've used. So it's not uncommon for you to see maybe, you know, jars of things or blue crabs shells that they've been looking at.
I don't think he'd actually be able to bring the crabs in or not allow. There's. There's some regulations about using animals.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Pictures of them, though.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Maybe. Yes.
But yeah, it's not unusual to see the stuff that the students have been working on that is part of their presentation or can be part of their presentation as well.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Sure, sure. And I think the neat thing about it that doesn't get talked about a lot is for the hours you mentioned, the public can come and see these. Right. And see what these kids are doing.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
Is fascinating. Some of the knowledge, when you start talking to the kids, they have done so much research on this second nature to them.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Their Knowledge is unbelievable. So sometimes, even when they're talking to the department, we are sometimes having to look things up or try figure out what they're saying.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Exactly. Yes, we do want to mention too, that Quincy High School's STEM Fair is going to be Thursday night from 5:30 to 8:30 in the Quincy High School A wing, third and fourth floors. They're only on their 17th though, Claire.
You've got 50 years on them.
But it works about the same way, right?
[00:15:42] Speaker B: It does.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Judging and team presentation, things like that. Yeah, yeah. But we want to make sure we get Quincy High in there too as well.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: And I'm sure they are looking for judges as well. So if Tuesday night doesn't work for judging, then I'm sure they're looking for Thursday.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: I gotta ask if there's crossover.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Do you work with the science department at Quincy High on this particular project?
[00:16:04] Speaker B: Yeah, we have a history of working together.
They actually helped us out with some of the materials for one of our projects for one of our students this year. So, yeah, we work together.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, 67th annual, it must be one of the first in the region, at least, if not the country.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think the Massachusetts fair was maybe first.
I think the Massachusetts fair, they're on their 68th year, so north, Quincy and Wilma Shields picked it up for north pretty quickly after the state started it, so.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Excellent. Well, thank you for stopping by and sharing a little bit about the fair with us and highlighting some of the special work of these kids. Really appreciate the opportunity.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: You are very welcome.
