Science Star! St. Catherine CES student brings home top awards at national science fair

Photo courtesy: Youth Science Canada

June 17, 2025

St. Catherine Catholic Elementary School Grade 8 student Claire Sehn recently picked up three top awards at the annual Canada-Wide Science Fair in New Brunswick.

She earned a gold medal in the Grade 7 and 8 category, the Challenge Award for Best Environmental Science project and a Platinum Discovery Award for her project “Beat the Blaze.”

“It was amazing. Everyone was so nice and everyone had a passion for STEM and to meet new people who have the same passions I do,” she said. “I’m very honoured to achieve this award.”

In April, Claire competed at the Peterborough Regional Science Fair at Trent University where her project earned her her first trip to the national competition.

“I have a strong passion for environmental science,” Claire said. “My sister originally did some science fairs and I saw the method that was going into it, and I decided that I wanted to do it too.”

Claire started the work on “Beat the Blaze” more than a year ago.

She wanted to make a natural fire retardant to protect the environment against drought and wildfires, something that is a major environmental issue again this spring in western Canada. 

Claire used a variety of different treatments including a completely natural one made from a combination of a hydrogel called Hydroxyethyl Cellulose or HEC and crushed mussel shells which are a natural fire retardant.

She put all of her treatments on soil and wood and measured the moisture content of them over the course of three days and then tested the combustion on piles of wood to see how well they would do against fire.

Claire said her results showed the treatment using HEC and mussel shells was the best treatment compared to the others.

“There are fire retardants which are currently used to fight wildfires, but they are primarily composed of ammonia-based fertilizers, which aren’t toxic to humans but can have negative effects on aquatic life, so hopefully my treatment can have fewer effects on aquatic life,” she said.

You can read more about Claire’s project here.