The 2020 Northampton Area Middle School science fair has expanded this year to become the NAMS STEAM Fair. STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics.

The change is an attempt to demonstrate to students how these different disciplines work together in the modern workplace.

This year, with the expansion of the fair to include other disciplines, the school partnered with DaVinci Science Center, Allentown. The science center will be providing feedback on projects from people who actually work in the chosen fields and also posting projects on its website for the public to view.

Like other years, the fair was originally slated to take place in the school cafeteria, where students would have put on demonstrations and spoken to attendees about their projects. DaVinci was also going to send out one of its traveling science shows. Sadly, none of that came to fruition because the fair needed to be recast in an online format on the school’s Schoology platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked if the new virtual format presented any problems for school staff or students, sixth-grade science teacher and science department leader Scott Oste said the conversion to online was “relatively seamless” because most students were already familiar with the Schoology platform through other online courses.

That’s not to say there were no problems. Of the 50 to 70 students who originally signed up to participate in the extracurricular activity, only 26 students forming 18 teams completed projects.

According to Oste, the biggest challenge in pulling off the event was communication.

“We have many ways of communicating with students online, but you never know if they got the message or understood it or will return it. You never really know what they’re going through,” Oste said.

Of the students who completed projects, Oste said he felt the level of learning was possibly higher than that of other years.

“It’s about the problem solving and the experience. They really got a lot out of it,” he said.

How did students come up with their ideas? Oste explained NAMS provided websites from past projects, and some students participate in other, regional science fairs, but mostly it’s just kids following their passion.

Of the 26 students involved, 10 were declared overall winners by a panel of teachers who do the judging based on guidelines put in place by themselves and modeled after rubrics of other science fairs.

The overall winners for each category are as follows.

For science, Logan Berger won for his work on Neodymium magnets and their effect on plant growth, and Mackenzie Connell took it away with her project on cellphone electromagnetic radiation.

In technology, the team of Ryan Hurlock and Alexandar Laros gained recognition for their interest in hydro-powered trains.

In an engineering feat, Charles Smith wowed judges with his project on building skyscrapers, and Brian McCullogh got an honorable mention for his project, also on skyscrapers.

Winners in the art category were the team of Mary Dresnock and Jasmine Erenetz for string art and paper and marker stained glass, respectively, and Carrie Peifly delivered a handmade paper and fabric construct in honor of Miss Finlayson.

Finally, in mathematics, Samuel Hayes produced an incredible 3D plasma cut eagle, Charles Burell analyzed March Madness in his “Madness of Analytics,” and Liv Jusinski taught how to come up with correct dosages for your pets’ drugs using “Medicine Math.”

This year, all participants will receive a certificate, and winners will receive tickets to either DaVinci Science Center or Dorney Park.

Oste offered his congratulations to all the students involved in the first NAMS STEAM Fair — a year not easily forgotten.

To view winning projects, visit davincisciencecenter.org/virtual-science-fair-showcase-submissions.