Saxony Lutheran student earns place in international science fair

It was a year of firsts for Logan Ressel and his science teacher.

During his first appearance at the Regional Science Fair at Southeast Missouri State University, the Saxony Lutheran High School freshman advanced to national competition. He beat out many older students and about 35 other projects at the March competition to go on to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, Calif., this week.

He said he set the bar high his first year of high school.

"Afterward, it's like, how can you top this?" he said.

He has three more years of high school and one more required science fair project.

Students are required to complete science fair projects during their freshman and junior years but are not discouraged from participating in other years, said Nic Love, a math and science teacher. After placing at Saxony's schoolwide science fair, Ressel continued on to Southeast's, where he won.

He and Love arrived in California on Sunday. He will compete alongside 1,500 high school students from 50 countries.

Austin Pierce, a freshman at South Pemiscot High School, also took top honors regionally and will be competing. Zach Raines, an eighth-grade student at St. Vincent de Paul School, will attend the competition as an observer for having the top eighth-grade project.

Love, who is in his first year at Saxony, said he had not worked with science fairs before. He said he realized a creative idea goes a long way.

"It can't be a dime-a-dozen project," he said.

As a junior high school student at St. Paul Lutheran School, Ressel said he never advanced past schoolwide fairs. This year he worked harder on the presentation quality, he said.

In California, he will present a clear vacuum chamber. Inside the chamber, a laser sets off a timer that records the fall rate of a cotton ball, which is build into the contraption. He pumped in different gases to see how they affected the cotton ball's fall rate.

"We never actually open up the tube," he said.

Refrigerant, he said, created the most resistance.

abusch@semissourian.com

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