Area students head to state after 67th Annual Northern Minnesota Science Fair

BEMIDJI -- Last Friday, more than a hundred of the brainiest middle and high school students in the region came together to show off their smarts at the 67th Annual Northern Minnesota Science Fair held at Bemidji State University.

Rows upon rows of posters and contraptions filled the Beaux Arts Ballroom as students from the 15-county region explained their projects to judges – with hopes of advancing to the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair in late March.

Elliott Gieser, a seventh-grader at Bemidji Middle School, displayed his homemade pop can solar heater and explained how it’s an effective secondary source of heat.

“On a sunny day around 12 p.m., you get a 101.2 degree temperature change in winter,” Gieser said. “Next year, I’m going to change out all the silicone to high heat silicone and make cookies with it.”

Gieser’s classmate, Dashel Hiller, exhibited tiny jars of bullets and discussed how ammunition and their fragments can contaminate meat with lead, posing problems for both hunters and the ecosystem.

“My family are hunters,” Hiller said. “My dad is also a biologist at BSU, so he knows that wildlife and scavengers have died because of eating lead and getting lead poisoning.”

Other students, such as Hannah Fiet and Paige Dudley from Robert J. Elkington Middle School in Grand Rapids, worked in pairs for their project. Fiet and Dudley tested and studied the pH of lakes and bodies of water around their town.

Samantha Molitor, a senior from Bagley High School, studied human decision making and demonstrated how people are more likely to avoid extremes when making those decisions.

“I really like psychology and sociology, so I wanted to show those sides of science,” Molitor said.

In the end, the Senior High Northern Minnesota Science Fair Winners were:

• First place: Kyle Ledermann from Grand Rapids High School

• Second place: Isaac Mauch from Lincoln High School

• Third place: Samantha Molitor from Bagley High School

And the Middle School Northern Minnesota Science Fair Winners were:

• First place: Paige Jacobson and Adam Jacobson from Robert J. Elkington Middle School

• Second place: Reed Johnson from Bemidji Middle School

• Third place: Calla Gieser from Bemidji Middle School

• Honorable Mention: Lola Wesley from Bemidji Middle School

In addition to the first through third Middle School place winners, seven more middle school projects will advance to the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair:

• Elliot Gieser from Bemidji Middle School

• Moraya Holleman from Bemidji Middle School

• Madeline Larson from Bemidji Middle School

• Misha Montgomery from Bemidji Middle School

• Lauren Raitanen and Griffin Raitanen from Robert J. Elkington Middle School

• Allison Fox from Robert J. Elkington Middle School

• Bella Salmi from Robert J. Elkington Middle School

1/3: Judge Chris Tower talks with Calla Gieser from Bemidji Middle School during the 67th Annual Northern Minnesota Regional Science Fair held Feb. 21 at BSU. She placed third in the middle school category for her project on “Green Tops – Hot or Not?” (Annalise Braught / Bemidji Pioneer)

2/3: Kaitlyn Olson, a seventh-grader from Grand Rapids, talks to judge Nathan Munson about her project during the 67th Annual Northern Minnesota Regional Science Fair held Feb. 21 at BSU. (Annalise Braught / Bemidji Pioneer)

3/3: Dashel Hiller from Bemidji Middle School talks to a judge about his project during the 67th Annual Northern Minnesota Regional Science Fair held on Feb. 21 at BSU. (Annalise Braught / Bemidji Pioneer)