Cape Girardeau, Missouri – T.S. Hill Middle science students stole the show at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau at this year’s annual Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair.
The Regional Science Fair is a highly anticipated event held in March featuring almost 500 students from 32 area high schools and junior high schools. This year there were 285 entries in the Junior Division and 46 in the Senior Division.
Dr. Chris McGowan, dean of the College of Science, Technology and Agriculture served as the director of the event.
Sophie Freeman, 8th grade student at T. S. Hill Middle School took first place with her exhibit “Luminol Glow”.
“It was the first time a Dexter student won the entire Science Fair,” stated middle school principal Scott Kruse. “Science teacher, Mrs. Ramsey, did an excellent job and I am proud to say we won the top overall awards at both the Junior and Senior High levels.
In the Senior Division, Jon Rodgers, a junior won the Senior Division with his science fair project, “Using Aliivibrio Fischeri to Detect Water Toxins”.
Rodgers received the following awards: ASU Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, GENIUS Olympiad, I-SWEEP (Awarded to the top high school projects selected in categories of Energy, Engineering, or Environment who display outstanding work in the them of environmental sustainability and innovation), Office of Naval Research, Southeast Missouri Dental Society, Stockholm Junior Water Prize, Biology category-First Place, and the ISEF Winners (the top two senior division exhibits will receive paid travel and lodging to Pittsburgh, PA on May 10th – 15th to compete in the 66th International Science and Engineering Fair.
Eighth grader Sophie Freeman’s project tested whether changing water temperature affects how long Luminol glows. She is the daughter of Kristy Steward and will be attending the international competition in Pittsburgh this summer.
Freeman’s awards included the Broadcom Masters (a national science competition for U.S. middle school students), Chemistry-First Place, Best Experiment, Top 8th Grade Observer, Best Overall Junior Physical Science, Intell International science and Engineering Fair Finalist.
Participating schools in the Senior Division were Delta R-V High School, Dexter High School, Jackson Junior High, Malden High School, Oak Ridge High School, Richland High School, Risco R-II High School, Saxony Lutheran High School, and South Pemiscot High School.
Participating schools in the Junior Division were Advance, Delta Junior High, Immaculate Conception-Jackson, Jackson Junior High, Leopold R-3, Malden R-1, Neelyville R-IV, Nell Holcomb R-IV-Cape Girardeau, North Pemiscot, Oak Ridge R-VI Junior High, Richland R-1 Junior High, Scott City Middle School, South Pemiscot Junior High, St. Ambrose School-Chaffee, St. Denis-Benton, St. Joseph School-Scott City, St. Vincent de Paul-Cape Girardeau, St. Vincent-Perryville, Ste. Genevieve Middle School, T.S. Hill Middle School- Dexter, Trinity Lutheran- Cape Girardeau, Twin Rivers-Fisk, and Twin Rivers-Qulin.
Anna Bishop won Broadcom Masters, First Place – Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Best Experiment.
Emily Grobe and Emily Smith earned Broadcom Masters and First Place Physics.
Brooke Hessling and Maycie Martin won Surgeon General’s Special Award for Outstanding Research and Third Place Medicine and Health.
Makenna Wilson earned First Place Earth and Space Sciences, Best Experiment, NOAA’s 2015 Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award, Broadcom Masters, and Association for Women Geosciences.
MaKayla Pyle won Second Place Behavioral and Social Science.
Erica Parris and Coby Powers earned the Broadcom Masters, First Place Chemistry, Best Observation, and Best Group.
“I also want to express how well all of our students competed and represented our school and community during the event,” continued Kruse. “It truly is a reflection on all of the teachers here at Dexter Middle School and, as both a parent and colleague, I sincerely appreciate all each of you do for our students on daily basis.”
“Also a special thank you to all of the teachers who allowed the participants to leave class and finish making corrections on their projects. The snow days put us behind schedule and without your cooperation and support our students would not have been able to get their projects ready for competition.”
