South O’Brien FFA Chapter Reporter
On April 18, 2023, the Iowa FFA State Convention was held at Iowa State University. During the convention, former South O’Brien FFA chapter president, Dain Moermond, competed as a finalist in the State FFA Star in Agriscience competition.
Dain is a senior at South O’Brien, but his journey to becoming a finalist started back when he was a freshman. That was when he had the assignment to come up with a science fair project idea for biology class. Dain chose to research the effects different drainage tiling has on crop yields. After completing the research and experimenting, he compiled the data, made a display board, wrote up his paper and presented it to the judges for the science fair. Since he did well, he was encouraged to submit a video for the district and state contests.
This year, as part of his Iowa FFA State Degree application, Dain filled out the Star in Agriscience application to explain what he did with his project. The finalists were selected from a pool of 682 FFA members that earned the Iowa FFA Degree—the highest honor the Iowa FFA Association can bestow upon an FFA member. The star awards recognize students who have developed outstanding agricultural skills and competencies through their career development programs and demonstrated outstanding management skills.
South O’Brien Chapter Advisor, Eric Kumm explained, “There are only six state finalists chosen in each of the four categories–Production, Placement, Agribusiness, and Agriscience. So this is quite an honor for Dain to be selected.”
Dain enjoyed this competition because he got to meet many different judges and it was a more “laid back” competition than others. Moermond was selected the State FFA Runner-up on stage with his parents, Mr. Kumm, and South O’Brien High School Principal Denise Phillips during the final session of the convention.
In addition, Dain also competed on the State Champion Poultry Judging team, so he was a very busy and successful competitor at the State convention.
Moermond said, “With science fair projects, it’s important to start them earlier than later. Quality projects take a lot of time to complete so allowing yourself to research and test properly, time is needed in abundance.” Dain would recommend this competition to other students, especially students that are interested in science.
He said, “This is another way to get down to Ames to make more memories with friends and enjoy Hickory Park.”