Wilmington and Southern State Community colleged co-hosted the state of Ohio’s District 17 Science Day at Southern State’s campus in Hillsboro on March 24. This marked the 13th year of Wilmington’s involvement with this prestigious event and the second year that it took place at Southern State.
Participants included 73 high school, middle school and elementary students primarily from Highland, Adams and Brown counties who had received superiors at their local science fairs in order to qualify for the District Science Day. On Saturday the 24th, these students converged on Southern State where they presented their research projects.
Dr. Russell Kincaid, the Science Day coordinator, was pleased with the number and quality of the projects and is optimistic regarding participation in the future.
“We relocated the event last year in an effort to be closer to the bulk of our participants,” Kincaid said. “For years, our strongest attendance has come from Brown County, and moving the location to Hillsboro was a natural move to accommodate those students. In addition, district lines were redrawn this year such that Adams County is now a part of District 17. This change significantly cut down the distance Adams County students had to spend driving to reach their District Science Day, and as a result increased participation.”
Twenty-eight students from the event qualified for State Science Day by receiving superior ratings. In addition, one student qualified for the Buckeye Science & Engineering Fair. The students presented research on projects which covered a wide range of topics including agriculture, biotechnology, energy, environmental sciences, information science and technology, botany, and material science, among others.
Students represented 15 schools within Ohio’s 17th District including Georgetown Jr/Sr High School, Fairfield Middle School and High School, Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington Middle School, Hamersville Elementary School, Mt. Orab Middle School, Fayetteville-Perry Elementary School and Middle School, North Adams Elementary and High School, Peebles Elementary and High School, Sardinia Elementary School, West Union Elementary and St. Michael’s School in Ripley. In addition, students from other districts whose schedules had conflicted with their assigned District Science Day were guests of District 17. These included students from Sycamore High School, Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School, Tower Heights Middle School in Centerville, Bethel High School and Archbishop Alter.
Ten students won scholarships to the BWiser Summer Science Camp at the College of Wooster. Those students included Gabriella Brown, Kayli Cover, Alexandra Arn, Rhiannon Nuernberg and Shannon Nuernberg from Brown County; as well as Daisy Holt, Liberty Meyer, Reece Meyers, Brea Stout and Vanessa Trotter from Adams County.
From Highland County, Fairfield Middle School sent seven teams and one individual to Southern State for the event. Grace Buchanan and Shaleigh Duncan, Kylie Fauber and Halle Hamilton, Madison Griffith and Anna Davis, Hannah Hodson and Dawnarae Rhodus, Bella Warner and Nayomie Ludwick, Brayden Zimmerman and Braxton Harrison, Koben Zink and Reese Teeters participated as teams, while Makenna Colwell had an individual project. The teams of Buchanan and Duncan, Fauber and Hamilton, Warner and Ludwick, and Zimmerman and Harrison all qualified for state. Grace Buchanan and Shaleigh Duncan received the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority Scholarship. Saylor Priest, from Fairfield High School, qualified for the state competition and the BSEF (Buckeye Science and Engineering Fair) competition. She also won first place for the Ohio Soybean Council Award.
Numerous judges, including Southern State faculty, Wilmington College and Southern State students, and members of the community gave their time to make this event possible. The time and efforts of all these individuals, as well as the students, teachers and parents, made this event a success.
Submitted by Dr. Russell Kincaid.
