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Cloquet students Marcy Ferrier, left, and Elizabeth Strickland, explain a map they created to show the effect of land cover and human disturbances affect the location of wolf dens and territories. The two girls took second place in a 2019 online mapping competition.
Cloquet grad MacKenzie Brummer points to the map legend that describes the various ozone levels across the state.
Using a relatively new geographical software known as ArcGIS, science fair students in Cloquet are taking their projects to new levels and winning awards.
Two teams of Cloquet High School students took first and second place in the 2019 Minnesota ArcGIS Online Mapping Competition for "story maps" they created as part of their science fair projects.
First place winners Payten Schneberger and MacKenzie Brummer examined the effect things like weather, industry and wind have on ozone levels in Duluth.
Their map/research was titled: What effect do local factors (lake breeze, industry, harbor and weather) vs. regional factors have on ozone levels in Duluth, Minnesota.
In the end, by examining topography, weather, industry, harbor and lake breezes along with regional ozone levels, the duo determined that Lake Superior and its breezes deserve a lot of the credit for Duluth's clean air. Duluth's ozone levels appeared highest during statewide transport events and without a lake breeze. Ozone levels were lowest in the spring and early summer, when lake breezes are most abundant.
The second place team of Marcy Ferrier and Elizabeth Strickland posed the question: What effect does land cover and use have on wolf pack range and den location?
Ferrier and Strickland mapped many collared wolves on the Fond du Lac reservation and evaluated the effect of land cover and use (human disturbances) on wolf pack range and den location. Different kinds of software were used to find and create the home range, a 10-kilometer buffer around the dens. They also found the distance from the wolf dens to the 10 nearest address points, roads, streams and open bodies of water.
Among their findings was that different wolf packs will choose den sites a similar distance from roads and residences (disturbances).
Both teams worked with various mentors over the course of their projects.
Ferrier and Strickland were given science and geo-mentoring assistance from wildlife biologist Mike Schrage and wetland specialist Shannon Kesner (both Fond du Lac Resource Management), Sam Giebner (Senior Planner at St. Louis County) and Courtney Jackson (graduate student Geoinformatics and Earth Observation Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University).
Brummer and Schneberger had science and geo-mentoring assistance from Trent Wickman (Air Resource Specialist USDA-Forest Service), Sam Giebner (Senior Planner St. Louis County), Jared Hovi (GIS Coordinator-Carlton County), and Nancy Schudt and Joy Wiecks (Fond du Lac Resource Management).
Ferrier and Strickland are seniors at CHS this year.
Schneberger is a pre-medicine student at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, one of 10 freshman admitted into their Joint Admissions Scholars Program, which guarantees acceptance into the U of M medical school as long as the student maintains a certain GPA. Brummer is currently a freshman in the nursing program at the College of St. Scholastica and plans to be a nurse anesthetist.
The Cloquet Public School's student participation in science research, is funded by Cloquet Schools with extra financial support for their projects from the Cloquet Educational Foundation.
