Library science fair gives student her chance

After years of waiting, soon-to-be fifth grader Amariz León-García finally got her chance this summer. 

Amariz built a project exploring how magnets influence a compass as part of Thomas Branigan Memorial Library’s inaugural Science Fair Summer, a program inviting students to display science projects while encouraging families to continue exploring science during the library’s summer reading season. 

“I’ve always wanted to do a science fair project,” she said. “My school didn’t have one. I finally had a chance to do a project for a science fair.” 

Her experiment explored whether placing a magnet near a compass could pull the needle away from true north. 

“My favorite part was probably doing the experiment,” she said. “I was able to finish my project, and it looked really, really cool.” 

Science Fair Summer is part of the library’s “Unearth This Story” summer reading program, which features activities inspired by geology, paleontology and archaeology. The event gives students an opportunity to display projects completed during the school year or create new ones over the summer. 

Library Assistant Phoebe Guskey said the idea came from seeing how much work students invest in science fair projects that often receive only a brief display before being packed away. 

“I figured we’d try and give folks an opportunity to reuse their science fair projects because I know kiddos work really hard on them,” Guskey said. “Sometimes it goes up for a week at school and then that’s it.” 

For Amariz, the program became the opportunity she had been waiting for. Rather than bringing a project from school, she created one specifically for the library after not having the chance to participate in a school science fair. 

Her mother, Teresa García, said Amariz approached the project with enthusiasm from the beginning. 

“She got started right away,” García said. “She was very motivated.” 

García said watching her daughter complete the project from start to finish was one of the most rewarding parts of the experience. 

“She was just really happy and proud of herself,” García said. 

Beyond learning about magnets and compasses, Amariz also developed skills in organizing information, documenting her experiments, and presenting her findings on a display board. 

“As you get older, there’s a lot of projects and things that are in middle school and high school and college,” García said. “Just knowing that she can have a big project, go through the planning process and complete the task is important.” 

García said she hopes opportunities like Science Fair Summer encourage children to discover new interests while building confidence through hands-on learning. 

For Amariz, the project offered more than a chance to explore science—it gave her the confidence to tackle something she’d been waiting years to try.