Sts. Joachim & Ann students earn a Big Win for Science!

Sts. Joachim and Ann participated in the recent Regional Science Fair at Francis Howell North High School where we had 2 big winners!

Kate Mikkelsen placed 1st for all 7th graders in the Biology Division and Ian Kladiva placed 1st among all 1st graders in the Environmental Science Division! Kate’s project was about plants and she tested different liquids to see which allowed for the most growth. Ian’s project dealt with the height of towers and if that affected how they fell. Before participating the Regional Science Fair, students entered the local science fair at Sts. Joachim and Ann School.  Mikkelsen and Kladiva were among 50 students from the school that entered the science fair.  The students that placed first in the Sts. J&A fair were then invited to participate in the Regional Fair at Francis Howell North.
 
Mikkelsen chose her topic based on the fact that she plays many sports and there are many drinks that claim to help the performance of athletes.  Through conversations with her mother, she decided to test if any of these drinks would help plants to grow.  She started by choosing the different liquids to use and then checking on and recording various aspects of the plant growth every other day. “I liked seeing the plants changing and growing every other day,” said Mikkelsen.

When asked how it felt to win first place, Mikkelsen stated, “It was really exciting because I did not think my project was good enough for first place!”
Mikkelsen also received the privilege of entering the Broadcom Science Fair.  She has entered the Broadcom Fair by virtual submitting her project.  Results for the Broadcom Science Fair will be available in October.

Ian definitely had a strong desire to want to complete a Science Fair Project for the first time!  To decide on a topic, his parents asked him questions like, "What are you interested in studying more about?" "Is there a problem that you can think of that needs to be studied further?"  "What can you study that will teach you something new?"  Ian has always had a bit of an interest in how buildings are designed and constructed, as his dad is an structural engineer and is always taking pictures of and pointing out different building designs and structures. 

After googling "science fair projects about building design," with his parents, Ian came across the idea of studying how different building designs impact the ability of a building to stay standing in severe weather conditions.  Ian's dad has to account for earthquakes when designing structures that will be built in California, so he thought it would be cool to study how earthquakes affect whether different building structures will stay standing or will fall down. 

What Ian liked most about working through the Science Fair Project process was building his buildings with Legos and building the Earthquake board with his dad.  He also liked putting his board together and making the graph for his board, because then he could draw and color!  Ian's parents helped him break the project up into small work sessions to keep his first grade interest! Doing the science fair project allowed Ian to soak up all the new and interesting Science ideas he is taught at Sts. J&A when he gets to explore  in the amazing STEM Lab!