On March 1 and 2, 14 students in Advanced Science and Research participated in the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair. Taking place on the State Fairgrounds, the students spent 8 hours on Friday interacting with judges and then 4 hours on Saturday at the awards ceremony. In total, SPA won over a dozen special awards. The biggest awards that qualified students for the International Science and Engineering award went to senior Ethan Dincer and junior Melissa Nie. Seniors Gabriel Konar-Steenberg and Maggie Hlavka are alternates for ISEF. Students that participated voiced their opinions about the science fair, as for many it was their first time attending.

“It’s very cold in here, but it has been interesting presenting to judges and hearing their suggestions of what else to investigate,” Konar-Steenberg said.

“It was fun to present my semester’s work and get the opportunity to move on to the next levels of competition,” junior Nathan Sobotka said.

“Nowhere else would a group of eight girls actually be interested in talking to me,” junior Brennan Keogh said.

“It was fulfilling to complete a task that we knew ASR would culminate to,” junior Sameer Bijwadia said.

“It was interesting to talk with other students at [TCRSF] and hear about their really cool science projects,” junior Abdelrahman Mokbel said.

“A tired but very enjoyable experience of presenting to others,” junior Richard Chang said.

“The judges stole my last couple of brain cells, but I’m sure there’s someone here who can regenerate them for me,” senior Betsy Romans said.

All members of the upper school that presented on Friday and Saturday will be advancing to the state science fair, which takes place on March 30-31.