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Rochester Science Fair directors Roger Larson and Karen Sabatke presented the district’s high school and middle school state project winners at the Public School Board meeting on Tuesday, April 10.

At the middle school level, special recognition was given to Friedell seventh grader Ishaan Govindarajan for his project “What Factors Affect the Efficiency of a DC series motor?”, sixth grader Harmanpreet Kaur for “Vitamin C Supplementation, Myth or Reality?”, seventh grader Nikhil Marda for “Can Alternative Oils Be Used as Efficient Fuel Sources?” and eighth grader Willemijn van Deursen for “Bad Cell Phone Connection.”

Middle school winners at the State Science Fair also included: at Friedell, Austin McCoy (6), Pujan Patel (6), Jonah Amundsen (8), Roshini Asirvatham (8), Neehar Banerjee (8), Sahil Chhugani (8), Robert Kitaoka (8), Tanvi Kohli (8), and Noah Siem & Travis Turner (8); at John Adams Middle School, Abigail Rech (8); at Kellogg Middle School, Samantha Farley (8), Alex Kofler (8), Albert Lin (8), Annalise Meier (8), Josh Palm (8), Delaney Shin (8), Colin Weber (8); at Lincoln-Choice, Catelyn Philpott  (7). Sarah Uhm (7), Megan Beighley & Lexi Schuder (8), Kristen Hansen (8), and Allison Schroeder (8); and at Willow Creek Middle School, Meg Geschwind (7).

At the high school level, special recognition was given to students continuing on to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which will be held in Pittsburg, PA May 13-18. Century High School tenth graders Marcus Gomez and Gavin Mai, and eleventh grader Ying Xiong will attend ISEF.

Said Marcus Gomez of his and Mail’s project, “We worked in a microbiology lab to develop a microbial fuel cell. This takes advantage of metabolic processes of bacteria to produce electricity. The idea is that we could go to places where there is a lot of bacteria, like waste water plants, and essentially harness free electricity.”

Mayo High School will send eleventh graders Spencer Berglund and David Campeau to ISEF. These students have gone to the International Fair since they were ninth graders.

“What we have developed is an electro-oculargraphic eye tracking system which uses the biopotential signals of your eyes to determine eye position, and we built a machine with a bunch of electronics on it to measure these signals, and we wrote software to interpret them,” Campeau explained, “The ultimate goal of the project was to enable people with disabilities to be able to use the computer just by looking at where they want the cursor to be.”

John Marshall High School will send ninth grader Lisa Fu to ISEF. Fu shared,

“My project was to develop a sustainable method of paper production by utilizing grass, dandelions, and leaves instead of wood. Wood has a very high amount of lignin. By decreasing the amount of lignin in paper by using grass instead of wood, we can decrease the amount of chemical, time, water, and energy to make paper.”

High school winners at the state level also included: at Century High School, Ellie Ekblad (9), Hongyi Jiang (9), Jordyn Koenig (9), Marisa Lin (10), Cheenar Banerjee (11), and Shelley Shen (11); at John Marshall High School, Alanna Bram (9), Samantha Woog (9), and Rahul Mukherjee (12); at Mayo High School, Michelle Campeau (9), Nicole Pauley & Diana Sorenson (9), Annie Sun (9), Abhishek Chandra (10), and Magdalena Panetta & Lisa Thammaovong (10).  

Larson said that 18 years ago, he and Karen would go to the state award ceremony, and they were lucky if they had five or six winners from Rochester. The major contender at the state level used to be Winona. This year, Rochester has 56 student winners. Over those 18 years, Rochester’s program has grown from having 15 sponsors to 120 sponsors, and Larson joked that the science fair is “more to do than there is time.”

Larson quoted a superintendant’s message to him almost twenty years ago, “We need to have an educational system that matches the medical community that we live in.”

Last year, Rochester was second in the world for most award winners, which is quite a legacy for Roger Larson and Karen Sabatke to leave behind. Larson said that over the years, he has become a believer in the power of the science fair to give students early career opportunities. At the international level, local students get exposures and connections that land them future jobs.

“The science fair gives kids an opportunity to do something that they wouldn’t have been able to do without that kind of support. It really takes everybody to do it.”

Larson commended Rochester Community Technical College (RCTC) for providing their gymnasium free of cost for three days for the science fair. He thanked the 16 members of the Science Fair Committee, and all the community volunteers who gave time to make the science fair a success.

Larson and Sabatke announced that this will be their last year directing the science fair. At this, the crowd of grateful parents and students gave these community leaders a standing ovation.