Ten members of the Perham High School Science Research team competed at the Minnesota Academy of Sciences State Science Research competition March 26, after qualifying earlier at the Western Regional Science competition.
The Perham students competed in the categories of Engineering, Medicine and Health, Psychology, Environmental Science, Environmental Management, Energy and Transportation, and Cellular Biology.
The competition was excellent with more than 500 students competing for gold, silver and bronze medals as well as special awards in 14 categories of scientific exploration.
"This year's state competition was at an awesome level, the things some of these kids are doing are just phenomenal," said head coach Shawn Stafki. "It really gives you hope for the future of science in this country."
The Perham team had a very good year with four projects receiving medals and three projects winning special awards. The projects which medaled at state competition were:
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0 In the category of Medicine and Health: Nick DeVillers and Tim Fresonke- Silver Medal for their project "The Effects of Panax Ginseng and Creatine on the Growth Rates of Mus musculus"
0 In the category of Psychology: Danielle Refsland- Silver Medal for her project "The Effects of Psychology on Portion Control"
0 Engineering: Nathaniel Beaver- Bronze Medal for his project "Electricity from Rain; The Kelvin Waterdropper and Weak Acids"
0 Energy, Transportation: Audrey Huwe- Bronze Medal for her project "Investigating Ethanol Production from Celulosic Forages"
The Perham squad also won several special awards which are given by businesses and government for the projects that they judge to be exceptional projects in their category. They were:
0 DeVillers and Fresonke: Medtronics -Best Medicine Prize - (this includes $1000 cash prize) for their project "The Effects of Panax Ginseng and Creatine on the Growth Rates of Mus musculus"
0 Refsland- US Surgeon Generals Award fo
0 Huwe - US Air Force Award: Science and Engineering (this includes a cash prize)
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For some students, the season is now over, but for three of the Perham Science Research teams the biggest event of the season is yet to come as they have qualified to travel to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which will be held in New Mexico in early May.
At ISEF they will compete against 1500 students from more than 60 countries for more than 5 million dollars in scholarships.
