Diabetes project wins student national science fair award
A Brentwood Bay student took home the Platinum Award at the recent 2023 Canada-Wide Science Fair awards in Edmonton.
Andrei Marti, 13, a student at St. Michaels University School, won the top award in the Best Junior (Grade 7/8) division in the category of “discovery” for his “Sweet Scores” STEM project.
Andrei was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was five, but loves to play soccer at a competitive level. During practice, he found that fluctuations in his blood sugar affected his ability to play at an optimal level.
For his project, he used himself as a test subject, using his glucose monitoring device to uncover how different foods affected his blood sugar. After ingesting three different groups of foods — simple sugars, complex carbohydrates and proteins — he concluded that protein was the best food for maintaining his blood sugar.
In the project he recorded his blood sugar 30 minutes prior to and after his soccer practice to determine which food group was best for him.
“The name of my project was a play on words — ‘sweet’ is for my blood sugar level and ‘score’ is a reference to soccer. It was probably the shortest name of a project in the whole competition,” he says.
Andrei says going into the competition, he didn’t think he had any chance at winning since there were so many other interesting projects.
“I think what set mine apart was that I have Type 1 diabetes and live it every day, so there is a personal connection. Also I believe that my project has the potential to have real-world applications — and to help others who live with diabetes.”
An active ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, he aspires to be a doctor or researcher so he can one day help others with the disease — or help find a cure.
Along with the Platinum Award, he earned a gold medal in the Junior Category and was the Challenge Award winner in the Junior Category for Disease and Illness. He received a $5,000 scholarship to the University of Alberta as well as a $4,000 scholarship to Western University.
The Canada-Wide Science Fair is the country’s largest annual youth science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) event co-ordinated by Youth Science Canada.
Some 396 student finalists showcased a total of 340 projects at the fair, which attracted 7,000 in-person visits to the Edmonton Convention Centre in two days and more than 10,000 online visitors.