A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Hermantown Middle School's Gabriel Bradley, left, and Easton Mathews react with surprise when their research project on wolves is named the top middle school project.
Once again, Cloquet sent the largest contingent of students to Saturday's regional science fair, held at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The photo includes 15 Cloquet Middle School students and four Cloquet High School students, plus two Hermantown Middle School students (one who happens to be the grandson of Cloquet science fair coach Cindy Welsh). Although numbers dropped this year, the overall projects were better, judges said.
Young scientists got a taste of scientific scrutiny at this year's 72nd annual Northeastern Minnesota Regional Science Fair Saturday, where participants were outnumbered by judges 2-to-1.
Regional co-director and Cloquet science fair coach Cindy Welsh said she was worried the judges would be unhappy with the lower student numbers, but she heard no complaints.
"They all said the projects were fewer, but better," she said.
Numbers have been a rollercoaster since Covid, with teacher dropout an even bigger concern because they are the folks running the programs at the individual schools.
"Two middle school teachers retired - in Babbitt and Cromwell - and nobody took their spots," she said. "Covid made a lot of teachers not want to come back and do it."
Welsh also retired from teaching, but after 30 years, science fair is in her blood. So she continues working with her former student turned co-coach, Bill Bauer, driving to the school twice a week to work with students and spending most of Christmas break there.
Hinckley, which used to bring about 40 students, brought 11 Saturday. Proctor didn't bring any, but promised to return next year. Additionally, Welsh's grandson, a seventh-grader at Hermantown Middle School, and partner participated this year, winning the top middle school award. They plan to go to the Hermantown school board and try to get a program started there.
"The Hinckley kids were amazed by the fair and the awards, and said they would have worked harder if they'd known everything they could win," Welsh said. "And their teacher is new and was surprised and excited. So I have hope."
Stay tuned for more news about Cloquet's regional science fair winners in an upcoming issue of the Pine Knot News.
