Magnuson State Science Fair Entrants Win Big

Three middle school students at Magnuson Christian School in White Bear Lake received first place at the 2024 Minnesota Regional Science Fair competition as well as silver medals at the state level competition.

Eighth grade students, Lola C. and Divora A. entered a team project with a topic relating to the very basic process of how dissolving molecules interact with water. Of approximately 450 participants in the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair, they received a first place award, admitting them to the State level of competition. They also received cash and an invitation to participate in the Thermo-Fisher contest later this year. At the State level, which had approximately 300 entries, they received the American Chemical Society Award and a silver place medal.

Seventh grade student, Lilly B. worked her way through an arduous set of problems relating to the harvest of “bleed” electricity from algae. At the regional level, she, too, received cash and a first place ribbon, as well as an invitation to visit 3M for a luncheon and a discussion with scientists there. At the State competition, she also won an invitation to theThermo-Fisher contest, as well as a silver medal.

Under the mentorship of Magnuson Christian School science teacher, Dr. John Mawk, these students committed extensive time outside of the classroom to perform their research and experimentation. “I believe that extramural competitions such as these contribute immeasurably to individual student maturation and to the growth of the student body as a whole,” said Dr. Mawk. “You get your clothes dirty, you get you hands dirty. Sometimes you forget what you did, so you learn to write everything down and you learn to manage large data sets and you learn computer graphing.”

This is the first time that Magnuson middle school students have entered the Minnesota Science Fair Competition. “It’s just amazing to see these 7th and 8th graders grow in confidence as they learn to present and defend their projects,” said Heather Norman, Magnuson Christian School Director.

“Science Fair competition is like a sport,” said Mawk. “We meet multiple times a week after school. There is a significant time commitment. We have two very, very involved projects. We only enter to win.”

According to Mawk, all the hard work pays off. “The kids will learn a lot doing it. The competition is partly rehearsal, partly theater and partly really understanding what you did. These girls rehearse all season. They end up with one game and that game lasts about 20 minutes talking to the judges. There will be some judges pulling a good cop, bad cop number on you, so it’s tap dancing and thinking on your feet, right?”

“When they win something, it’s absolutely transformative for them,” said Mawk. “It really is because they say, ‘I can do this!’ It’s all hands-on learning and they go from not quite understanding things to making their own Molar solutions and talking about electron transfers in a Voltaic circuit and so on. It’s like anything else. You don’t know how to do it until you do it.”

Dr. Mawk has plenty of hands-on experience. He is a retired neurosurgeon, a Navy Medical Corps officer, and he went to law school “just to see what that was all about.” His retirement has been focused on teaching science to adolescents and young adults and mentoring many students through regional and state science fairs.

All three girls received a special invitation to apply to the Thermo-Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge, the nation’s premier STEM research competition for middle school students, later this year. The top 30 finalists will travel to Washington DC to participate in the Finals Week of the competition. Each student will be judged on both their science research projects as well as their demonstration of collaboration and critical thinking skills during team challenges.

Said Mawk, “I always say that if they win it’s on them, but if they lose it’s on me. I always tell them that through taking risks and preparation, you make your own luck. Even though I’m pushing and pushing them, I don’t want to be responsible for them, I want THEM to be responsible. I try to have a lifeboat mentality where everybody pulls at the oars and if there is not enough room, everybody spends a little time in the water. You know, Navy stuff.”