Young local scientists headed to national competition

LAKE LINDEN – HUBBELL — A team of young scientists from the Copper Country are heading to a national competition.

What can be done about stamp sands left over from the Copper Country’s mining boom? That’s the question a team of students from Lake Linden–Hubbell Schools sought to answer in this year’s eCybermission competition.

The goal was to find a cost–effective way to remediate stamp sands in the local area without covering them with topsoil.

Student Beau Hakala said, “We tested different types of plants in different amounts of stamp sand to see if we could cover the stamp sands with plants rather than covering it with topsoil.”

They tested trefoil, clover, alfalfa and fescue to see which one worked best. They then made their virtual presentation for the regional competition at Michigan Tech.

Student Siona Beaudoin said, “You have to have your mission folder, so that’s what your experiment was, your team collaboration, so how all the team members worked together, and your community benefit, which is how your experiment would benefit the community.”

The team took first place in the ten–state region and are now headed to nationals in Virginia, June 26th through the 30th.

eCybermission is a national science and engineering competition, over 28,000 students competed last year.