Lachlan Ethier shows the leather holster he made for his Epi-pen, finding the look of a nylon fanny pack not to his liking. Lachlan was part of the Prince Albert & Northeast Science Fair at the Gateway Mall on Tuesday, April 9 (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff).

By Susan McNeil

science rules!

Regional science fair goes ahead with parental push

Apr 9, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Budding scientific minds in Prince Albert and the surrounding area got to go ahead with their regional science fair on Tuesday after parents stepped up.

Teachers across Saskatchewan started work-to-rule on Monday, which means they don’t participate in any activities outside of their professional duties of teaching.

But students like Lachlan Ethier of West Central School in Duck Lake were at the Science Centre in Gateway Mall anyway – with their tri-fold displays and explanations of their projects – after their parents opted to bring them.

Lachlan’s project was a holster for an Epi-pen, an invention borne out of the need to carry one with him and not liking the looks of the fanny pack style one he had.

“When I was about eight, I got stung by a wasp and we figured I was having an allergic reaction. So, then we went to the allergist in Saskatchewan, and he said we had to keep one of these Epi-pens on me at all times,” he explained.

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“I was like nine at the time and I didn’t really like this because it was like because I’m a boy and I didn’t like that. Yeah. So, I used my dad’s leather.”

Different incarnations of the leather holster were part of his science fair display with the leather improving in quality in each consecutive piece along with the stitching.

The first ones were 2.5 inches wide and nine inches long, which would hold the pen but, he found out, not the epi-pen inside it’s protective plastic case.

So he made a slightly bigger one and then one with a thick brown leather, wax thread and a loop sewn on the back so it can hang off his belt.

“I can just put my belt in and I can just walk around,” he said.

The case also has an end cover with a snap closure so he can access it at any time.

Lachlan has only had to be medicated the first time he reacted to the wasp sting, but says that 2.5 million Canadians rely on the pens to treat anaphylaxis.

“But only one in five Canadians actually wear theirs when they actually need them. So I’m not sure how many deaths happen, but it’s not good,” he said.

If he could find tougher leather, he would use that to make the next round but admits that it would be a challenge to punch the holes in the leather.

Like many other scientists, Erica Leavey-Ksyniuk experimented on herself.

Erica Leavey-Ksyniuk used herself as the test subject to see if masks help with lucid dreams during sleep. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

She thought that wearing a soft mask across her eyes might help with lucid dreams (the ones you can remember).

She found some very soft fabric and designed masks that would not only stay on while sleeping, but would also be comfortable.

The data did not support the hypothesis, however.

“My conclusion was that lucid dream sleep masks do not work all the time and don’t even work for certain people. So you can’t guarantee a lucid dream, but you can sometimes help,” she said.

She wore the masks a few nights at a time in order to collect the amount of data she needed but ran out of time to make her final design.

None of the scientists found out how their projects fared in the marking, but winners can go on to the Canada wide science fair in Ottawa.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com