The Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair was Friday in St. Paul. Grand Rapids high school students Paige and Adam Jacobson are very familiar with the event.

It’s Paige’s seventh time there and Adam’s fifth. This year, the duo tackled plastic pollution.

They created their own “Fantastic Bioplastic,” which was made of common household ingredients and can break down in nature.

“I don’t know how many times we were in the kitchen making batches,” Paige said. “Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. But that’s what science is all about, trial and error.”

They combined water, one of five different starches, vinegar, glycerol or sorbitol, lemon or lime juice, cream of tartar, and eggshells to create a slime-like product. Then they baked it in the oven at a low temperature for about seven hours.

They used a paper shredder to get consistent pieces of plastic for testing.

“We would hook it up and we would put it on a board and we would put a ring through the strip of bioplastic,” Adam said, “and we would use a special testing instrument we have to push on it until the bioplastic would break. And then it would be able to tell us how much strength it could withstand and how much it would flex before it would be broken.”

They discovered that potato starch and eggshells created the strongest plastic, which supported their hypothesis.

The Jacobsons look forward to the Science Fair every year.

“It teaches you so many skills like working together, especially if you have a teammate,” Adam said.

They started working on their 2024 project as soon as the 2023 Fair was over.

“We get to be scientists and learn all the science. And we get to meet real scientists who are always teaching us, and we learn so much,” Paige said. “So it’s a really fun way to meet new kids and to meet new scientists and it gives you a real way to learn how to talk to other people.”

Both plan to continue their STEM studies after high school. Paige will study biology at Bemidji State University next year. She and Adam both have their sights set on medical school.