Local students excel at Agriscience/Science Fair

Students participating in the Third Annual Big Foot High School and Feeder Schools Agriscience and Science Fair May 24, included BFHS seniors (front) Amelia Hayden, first, Hailey Davis and Makalyn Peterson, second, Kaitlyn Santeler and Abby Snudden, third, (back) Mark Grinnell (Big Foot FFA alumni), Alexx Rullman, Wade Klausen, Laura Brost, and Zachary Markhardt (BFHS Agriscience teacher.) To see photos of additional participants pick up a copy of this week’s Times/Reporter. (Penny Gruetzmacher photo)

Big Foot district students advance to FFA nationals

By Penny Gruetzmacher

Correspondent

The Third Annual Big Foot High School and Feeder Schools Agriscience and Science Fair, held May 24 at The Abbey Resort featured students who had been nominated by teachers from their schools.

The work of the students was judged by grade level and after judging and time for students’ family members and friends to view their work and ask questions, awards were presented. The last part of the evening was award presentation.

“As for their projects, the students are taught background knowledge with specific content standards and design their own labs using that new knowledge. They first determine a problem or formulate a question they want an answer to and then create a hypothesis and protocol to test that question or an idea to solve the problem,” Lisa Konkel, Agriscience instructor and FFA advisor at Big Foot High School said.

Konkel said the students are using scientific methods toward an unknown and then analyze the data collected to write a conclusion.

“They take all this information and place is on a display board and then defend their finding and methods to a group of judges with content knowledge,” she said.

Judges were as follows, many of them former National Agriscience Fair participants:

  • Freshmen – Dr. Doris Frentress, Retired Principal with Doctorate in Education; Nancy Castelein, science teacher at Reed Elementary; Michelle Schauf, science teacher at Walworth Elementary; Carlie O’Donnell, pre-law student;
  • Sophomores – Kyle Rambatt, art major at University of Northern Michigan; Mikayla Grinnell, Gateway Technical College student; Seth Loudenbeck, co-owner of Loudenbeck Farms; Jack Barry, Owner of Barry Custom Carpentry; Christopher Walter, Chemistry student at UW-Madison, and; Emilie Cerny, Agriculture Education student;
  • Juniors – Ted Peters, Executive Director of the Geneva Lake Environmental Agency; Brittany Rambatt, Agriscience Educator; Adrianna Vanderstappen, Co-owner of Dutch Made Holsteins; Madeline Simms, Marketing Specialst for EXACTO, Inc; Bardia Dehghan Manshadi, Plant Scientist for EXACTO, Inc.;
  • Seniors – Brett Von Bergen, Chemist for EXACTO, Inc.; Rick Henningfeld, Educational Consultant for Vivayic, Inc; Marsha Ries, Retired Social Studies Educator; Katy Vacula, Genetics/Animal Science student at UW-Madison; Miriam Smith, marketing student at Oral Roberts University Tulsa.

Results from the local fair are included with the accompanying photos.

 

State FFA convention

Students from the Big Foot district earned numerous awards at the State FFA Convention in Madison recently, including second place in “Growing Leaders”, third place in “Building Communities” and third place overall of the top 10 chapters in the state.

Local agriscience students that advance to nationals are: Ameila Hayden (State FFA vice president), Sydney Bender and Melissa Konkel, Bryce Peterson, Madison Pajeau, Makalyn Peterson and Hailey Davis, and Travis Berryman.

Other results from the convention included: Sophia Lantz, third gold; and the Conduct of Meetings Team comprised of Peterson, Konkel, Sydney and Amanda Bender, Jacob Curtis, Rebecca Wells and Ryan Loudenbeck, fourth.

 

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