A pair of St. James high school students have returned from a national science fair with medals around their necks and some extra cash in their pockets.

Grade 9 students Chris Lansang and Annie Ross were awarded a bronze medal at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, May 17.

Ross, who attends Sturgeon Heights Collegiate, and Lansang, from St. James Collegiate, collaborated on a project titled Multitasking — Leave it to the Computers.

The duo had a group of fellow students take in auditory and visual information simultaneously and tested them against a group only doing one task at a time.

The students concluded multi-tasking can lead to distraction, and isn’t conducive to learning environments. 

Along with the bronze medal, Lansang and Ross each received a cash award of $300 and a $1,000 entrance scholarship for Western University.

It isn’t the first time the two students have gone to the national science fair together. Last year, the pair — who met at George Waters Middle School — went to nationals with another project that examined student learning styles in the classrooms.

"We really like to focus on improving on learning in classroom and school environments," Lansang said.

"Naturally, as students, we want to further our classroom because we’re still in school. We see these things in day-to-day experience."

To learn more about their project, visit http://tinyurl.com/SJSD-Science.