For the second year, participants at the 2022 Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair were invited to create poems for our STEM poetry activity. We were so amazed and delighted by the poems we saw this year! They are fun, creative, and your love for science shines through. Students, thank you so much for sharing your writing!
Pollution
A world meant to be green and bright
Is filled with garbage day and night
I smile as people build things to clean our environments
I am determined to make this world a better place, it is my life assignment.
- Hannah, Elk River
An Ode to Dirt
I visit the garden in the early morning.
The birds and bees greet the sunrise as it peeks over the horizon.
The mud sinks beneath and clings to my boots.
The rich, sweet scent of earth hangs thick in the dewy air.
Each twig of moss and sprig of grass are connected
In endless channels of roots and rhizomes, in constant connection.
The unsung heroes are the toadstool and the earthworm
Giving new life to everything we cast away.
What a marvel, what a miracle the soil is,
This interwoven web of creatures creating the very ground we walk upon.
The lifeblood of our planet still goes simply unknown,
But it is from this earth that we are born, and it is to this earth we return.
Even the soil comes from the heavens,
Everything we touch is made of stardust,
Down to the moss and grass and toadstool and earthworm.
That bit of cosmic energy resides there, but in all of us too.
- Caroline, Mendota Heights
Five Monarch Butterflies.
Five monarch butterflies
Learning to explore,
One gets caught up in a net
And then there were four.
Four monarch butterflies
Flying high and free
One’s home is pulled from the ground
And then there were three.
Three monarch butterflies
Drinking the morning dew,
Ones poisoned by pesticide
And then there were two.
Two monarch butterflies
Soaking in some sun,
But it’s getting way too hot
And now theres just one.
One monarch butterfly
Just trying to survive,
But without a home, food, or water
it won’t make it out alive.
No more monarch butterflies
On any flower or any tree,
Just one of many species lost
At the hand of human greed.
- Caroline, Mendota Heights
Memory Illusion: I Recall It As It Happened (Social Science)
It happened at 11:41 AM, red jacket.
I saw it, blue jacket.
No, it was a yellow and red jacket.
False memories:
Faded laughter,
Distant tales,
A forgotten disaster,
With fake details.
Glowing memories of delight
Chilling horrors of the night
Eyewitnesses as the sight
But it really happened–right?
– Gabriella, Minneapolis
Discovery
Light cuts the glass window,
Spills warmth onto the paper
Where I sit
And discover.
– Gabriella, Minneapolis
Science Fair
Rows and rows
Of white tri-folds,
Cardboard peeling
Young kids squealing.
Zapped circuits,
Slices of cake,
A pi equation,
The skins of snake.
Analyzing charts and graphs,
Velocity and water taps,
Neuroplasticity and topo maps,
Spinning wheels and power naps.
Reading super tiny text,
There's one judge and then the next,
Putting our hard work to the test,
Making sure we do our best.
Some projects are flashy,
Others are neat.
Some are gonna be tough to beat.
From soda to invertebrates,
From violet light to small earthquakes,
And to that old skin from a snake…
Everyone, let's celebrate!
- Gabriella, Minneapolis
Fallen leaves of burgundy
Scattered on the grassy ground
Slowly they turn brown
- Grace, Winona
Purple coneflowers
Some still vibrant, others brown
Stand straight in the fall
- Grace, Winona
Dancing in the deep
Sea like synchronized swimmers
I dance with golden fish
And torquised turtles.
I never run out of breath.
I have escaped death
In the deep depths.
Next, on to ballroom.
With sea shells on my head
I dance gracefully with
The jellyfish. I am
Immune to the sting.
I listen to the whale sing.
Sing so smooth.
I never lose my partner
Because we glow
With luminescence.
The jellyfish dips me low.
My dress ripples around
Me in the water
Below the waves.
- Grace, Winona
Science
Biology shows us the
broad,
natural,
World
Chemistry, matter and energy surrounds us all
Never truly going away.
Physics, clinging to logic,
The way the world works.
Engineering, the fundamentals of our industrialism
simplified.
Psychology,
We think all the time but do we really?
- Stella, Duluth
Butterflies
Thought a beautiful creature,
Emerging from their own goop to bloom into a bright blossom.
Swooping, flitting, flying
colors spiraling in the wind.
Upon further inspection their elegance fades.
Drinking tears from the eyes of the crying
Drinking blood from the injured.
And decaying flesh from the bodies of the deceased.
- Stella, Duluth
Science Fair
A world of interest.
A time for discovery.
Enter and you’ll see.
- Stella, Duluth
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Plutonium is radioactive,
and so is U.
-Ainsley, Coon Rapids
In winter snow fell from the sky,
So i picked some deicers to apply,
After just one hour,
The snow couldn't withstand the power
After submitting i waited for a reply.
-Asher, Mankato
