by Katie Dunnell
Running on minimal hours of sleep, staying after school for endless hours, and also trying to stay on top of regular schoolwork are all typical signs that the State Science Fair is rolling around soon. Seniors Shannon Hogan and Kat Volk have begun to prepare their project for the state fair after receiving feedback on their project at regionals. The girls have a lot of work to do and only so much time to do it.
Kat Volk and Shannon Hogan traveled to the fair for their third time this past Friday. They decided to take a break from the project they had spent the last two years working on and start over with something completely new, alternative septic systems.
“Our old project got a lot of attention from the judges, so we were nervous to see what they would think of our new one, but we were really excited to place third and received a one hundred dollar check,” Shannon Hogan says.
Because the girls placed in the top five at regionals, they now have the opportunity to travel to the state fair at MIT.
“The state fair is where students can win big scholarship money, but the judges are much harder,” says Shannon Hogan.
Before heading to states, the girls have a few alterations to make on their project. They even plan to add another component to their work.
“Aside from testing water in the greenhouse, we are also filtering and checking levels of phosphate and nitrogen in the soil of the greenhouse because we want to know why the plants inside are abnormally large,” says Shannon.
Kat and Shannon believe that adding in research on the soil will finalize their project and give it that extra twist that will catch the judges’ eyes.
“The judges are constantly looking for new and unique projects and ideas, so we really want to stand out,” Shannon says.
The girls have about five weeks to prepare and finalize their project for states, which will be held May 3-5.