Northland students win big at national and international science competitions

This last school year and over the summer, northland students were winning big at various national and international science competitions.

They have made themselves and the entire community proud as they came out on top at various academic research contests which includes the National Stockholm Junior Waterprize, Genius Olympiad, Minnesota on the map competition, Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, and many more.

In an interview with WDIO News, three of them spoke about what their research was all about.

Parker Sickmann said – “My project was growing microgreens and comparing their growth and in space versus just on earth.”

Johanna Bernu (junior)

“I studied how yellow water lilies that grow in watersheds in our region can be used as a disinfectant.
But I used the cultural connections within my community and my family to guide my research process.”

Grace Lavan (senior)

“I used ArcGIS, which is kind of like a fancy version of Google Earth to map movement. I uploaded wolf movement data and looked at how movement changed with the construction of the line three oil pipelines.”

Their instructors say the entire process took a lot of commitment and dedication.

Cynthia Welsh, Cloquet Science Teacher, and Research Mentor – “The students went to an international and national event and even state events where there’s thousands of people from all over the world and came back home with awards.”

William Bauer, Cloquet Science Teacher, and Research Mentor – “These projects take hundreds of hours. I mean, it’s like a job for them. So not only are they designing an experiment, working with scientists in the region, but then they’re analyzing their data and trying to draw some conclusions, and figure what’s going on.”

Congratulations to them.