LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Four Louisville middle schoolers were semi-finalists for a national science fair.
"For the science fair, I made a robot," semi-finalist Vera Naidu said. "I put a lot of work into it."
While many seventh graders spend their afternoons playing video games, Owen Park uses his free time working on science projects that could one day help NASA.
"I love space, so this is an opportunity for me to help in that area," Park said. "We actually built the vacuum chamber out of nothing. That took about three days."
His science fair project tackles dust collection on rovers traveling on the surface of Mars.
"Five rovers ended very quickly due to dust storms and dust getting on the rovers and stopping them from working," Park said.
He is one of four middle schoolers in the state of Kentucky selected as semi-finalists for the Thermo Fisher National Science Fair. It's by invitation only, and they all go to St. Francis of Assisi in Louisville.
These classmates are studying a range of science topics, such as studying the health effects of artificial sweeteners and creating a robot that helps distribute medicines in hospitals.
"I learned so much about bio-chemistry and DNA," semi-finalist Harper Joaquin said.
She and her friends agree their teacher, Fred Whittaker, fuels their passion for science.
"He helped me with everything," Park said. "I wouldn't have been able to do this without him."
The national science fair narrowed its list from 300 to just 30 students around the United States. While these bright minds weren't chosen as finalists, they plan to be in the next generation of scientists.
"I want to be something in the medical field," Joaquin said.
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