Award winners announced from regional science, engineering fair at SMU
WINONA, Minn. — One hundred and forty two students competed at the 61st annual Southeastern Minnesota, Western Wisconsin Regional Science and Engineering Fair, hosted by Saint Mary's University of Minnesota in conjunction with Winona State University on Feb. 28. Students from nine local schools participated including: La Crescent Middle School, Winona Middle School, Bluffview Montessori School, Cotter Junior High, Chatfield Middle School, Chatfield High School, Cochrane-Fountain City High School, Cotter High School and Winona Senior High School.
Advancing to the International Science and Engineering Fair (May 11-16 in Los Angeles, Calif.) is Lucas Derbyshire from WSHS with his chemistry project “Optical Activity of Saccharides.” Alternate projects to ISEF were first observer Michael Oldendorf from C-FC High School with a project in Botany on “Effect of Indolebuytric Acid on Germination Rate” and second observer Matthew Dietz from Chatfield High School with a project in Medicine and Health on “ The Effect of Cell Density and Growth Supplements on Mesenchymal Stem Cell Attachment and Growth on an Artificial Matrix.”
Students who will be advancing to the State Science & Engineering Fair on March 30-April 1 for the Senior Division are: Shae Alcamo, Dicey Spring, Lucas Derbyshire, Ivan Kovala, Lucas Larson and Emma Walsky from WSHS; and Luke Dietz, Justin Friedrich and Matthew Dietz from Chatfield High School. Those advancing to the Junior Division are Max Derbyshire, Armon Parsi, Anthony Trombetta and Austin Weatherhead from Winona Middle School; Lincoln Salisbury from Chatfield Middle School; Julie Walker from Cotter Junior High; and Ella Baudek, Hannah Clarkin, Alex Bourdreau, Payton Dryden, Russell Drye, Garrett Fields, Molly Franzose, Keaton Keip, Michael Luoma, Grant Nutter, Jenny Olson, Connor Siegersma, Paige Pasvogel and Anastasia Veselovsky from La Crescent Middle School.
Students from Cochrane-Fountain City High School that will be participating at the Badger State Science Fair, to be held March 22 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, are Anna Hoesley and Michael Oldendorf.
In addition to projects, students also will be presenting research papers. Advancing to state for the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium competition at the senior level are: Matthew Dietz and Justin Friedrich from Chatfield High School and Lucas Derbyshire from Winona Senior High. Students who will be advancing to state for the junior level are Austin Weatherhead, Parker Hawkinson, Anthony Trombetta, Max Derbyshire, and Evan Ferstl from Winona Middle School and Bennett Gathje from Chatfield Middle School.
Special awards were also given out. The awards and the recipients are:
US Air Force: Dylan Celius (Winona Middle School), Zach Roline (Chatfield Middle School), Nathan Graff and Connor Zukowski (Cotter Junior High)
American Psychological Association: Jenny Olson and Connor Siegersma (La Crescent Middle School)
Bartlett W. Foster Award: Luke Dietz (Chatfield High School) and Max Derbyshire (Winona Middle School)
Broadcom MASTERS: Anthony Trombetta and Max Derbyshire (WMS), Michael Luoma, Grant Nutter, Payton Dryden, Keaton Keip, Paige Pasvogel (La Crescent MS) and Julie Walker (Cotter Junior High)
Genius Olympiad International High School Project Fair on Environment: Payton Dryden (La Crescent Middle School) and Anthony Trombetta (Winona Middle School)
Mu Alpha Theta: Sang-Hyuk Lee (Cotter High School)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Mitchell Williamson (Winona Middle School)
U.S. Metric Association: Shae Alcamo and Dicey Spring (Winona Senior High)
U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize: Emerald Thompson-Jereczek (Cochrane-Fountain City High School)
Winona State University Department of Chemistry Excellence in Chemistry Award: Lucas Derbyshire (Winona Senior High)
The fair committee would like to thank science and engineering contingent of the region for volunteering to be judges.
