by Jared Hines
Contributing Sports Writer
Every year, thousands of students, from around the district, the state and the country, participate in science fair projects. These students create many different projects, ranging from volcanoes using baking soda and vinegar to testing one’s heart rate after doing different activities. It takes a special project to stick out.
That is just what three Rogers Middle School students did this year.
Avery Swenson, Isaac Mize and Joseph Clauson will represent Rogers at the state science fair, showing off their projects to judges after advancing from the local level to the state competition.
Swenson, Mize, and Clauson were three of the 44 students chosen from the 285 participants that competed at the local regional science fair.
Mize’s project is one of many that use magnets, but Mize goes above and beyond, using those magnets to create motion to move vehicles.
Swenson and Clauson’s project consists of mimicking a Mars rover and testing battery power. They test the power at different temperatures and record the rover’s performance.
All three students are eighth grade students at Rogers Middle School. The science fair is a yearly project that eighth grade science teachers Lisa Berry-Koeppen, Krista Johnson, Ashley Bialke, and Elizabeth Dickmeyer work on in their classrooms.
While the experiments are mostly done outside of class, students present the boards to their classes, along with a parent night where fellow students, teachers and parents can come see a variety of boards from the different classes.
From there, the teachers then pick the boards they believe will best represent the school at the regional science fair. Students can accept or deny the invitation, knowing that accepting will provide more work, outside the already busy schedule of a 14-year old middle school student.
The state science fair will take place April 1-3.