Eight SPA students competed in the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair (TCSF) science research paper and project competition, held on Saturday and Sunday, February 25-26, at the University of Minnesota. All eight of the students are members of the Advanced Science Research seminar, which gives SPA’s most advanced science students the opportunity to pursue an independent research project of their own choosing and design. A complete list of the eight student projects, with abstracts, is below.
This is the first year that participation in the TCSF competition is a requirement of the seminar. The eight students who submitted posters and projects won a total of twenty awards and honors for their research from almost a dozen different honor societies or competitions. In addition, six of the eight students will move on to the next level of competition, which includes the International Sustainable World Project Olympiad (ISWEEP), the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition (SJWP), and the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair (MSSEF).
“I’m incredibly proud of the hours of dedicated work in our SPA laboratories and a variety of college and university labs around the Twin Cities in which our students are doing original research in scientific areas they are passionate about,” says Beth Seibel-Hunt, who teaches the Advanced Science Research seminar. “For them to be acknowledged for this hard work is a direct result of the critical thinking and leading-edge work that we strive for in the Advanced Science Research seminar as the capstone project for science at SPA.”
All of the six students moving on to the next level of competition will compete at the Minnesota Science and Engineering Fair, held on Saturday, March 25 at the Minneapolis Marriott. Three of those six also earned recognition from several national competitions: Henry Zietlow ‘18 was the top ISWEEP award winner, securing a spot to compete May 3-8th in Houston, TX; Diane Huang ’17 and Iya Abdulkarim ‘18 were named the 1st and 2nd alternates spots for the ISEF competition held May 13-19th in Los Angeles, CA. The ISEF is widely regarded as the most prestigious science competition for high school students in the nation.
SPA students have historically been very successful in regional and national science competitions. Emilia Topp-Johnson '18 (see project below) has been selected to represent St. Paul at ISEF for the last two years, and in her Grade 8 year was selected to the junior-high equivalent of ISEF, known as Broadcom MASTERS. In 2014, Lucy Li ’14 was named a Science Talent Search semifinalist.
The eight students and their projects are below.
Iya Abdulkarim ‘18: Applying the Novel Object Recognition Test in Danio Rerio: An Observational Study
Awards and Honors: Second alternate to ISEF; Penny Lohman Memorial Award ($75 & plaque); moves on to State for poster presentation; state alternate for research paper.
Abstract: Given the use of zebrafish as as model organism in laboratories around the world, there are various methods for testing the fish depending on the focus of the research. One test used to quantify memory and learning on other model organisms, the novel object recognition test, has been applied to zebrafish with conflicting results. To determine if the test is appropriate and reliable in zebrafish, it was applied to a group of adult zebrafish in the St. Paul Academy and Summit School zebrafish facility. In three trials with different time intervals, the fish spent 25% percent of their time observing the novel object on average. The novel object recognition test was deemed appropriate in zebrafish.
Emma Hills ‘18: Urbanization’s effects on Bird Migration
Project Abstract: The human population in the United States has increased tremendously in the past hundred years. This increase in human population has led to increases in urban areas, known as urbanization. Urbanization has led to the destruction of many habitats, such as wetlands and grasslands as well as caused “heat island” effects in metropolitan areas compared to outlying rural areas. These “heat islands” have an effect on wildlife, and specifically birds. Bird migration paths have been altered by these “heat islands” and destruction of their habitat. This experiment looked at the rare Whooping Crane and the more common Lark Bunting to see which bird saw more changes to their migration path due to recent urbanization. Maps were made in Arc-GIS Explorer using bird locational data from EBird, a bird sighting database, and human population density data from the United States Census Bureau. In the end, the Lark Buntings had a significant increase of 245 miles in the width of their migration path between the time frames of 1980-1989 to 2010-2015. In addition, the Whooping Cranes had a significant increase of 80 miles in the width of their migration path. The migration paths did seem to correlate with changes in population density, but there was not enough data on the Whooping Cranes to draw any conclusions. In the future, GPS tracking data of individual and group migration paths could be used to compare individual bird migration paths from year to year.
Diane Huang ‘17: Evaluating Roof Runoff Contaminants by Age in St. Paul, Minnesota
Awards and Honors: First alternate to ISEF; Winner of the US Department of Agriculture research award; Winner of the ASA earth science award; Winner of the Ricoh sustainability award; Winner of the Stockholm junior water prize; First runner-up for the Eco-Lab award; moves on to State for research paper and poster project.
Project Abstract: Residentially installed rain barrels are a low-cost and viable way of reducing urban runoff. However, rain barrel adoption rates are extremely low and guidelines for safe rainwater collection are scarce and often lack clarity. Asphalt, the most popular shingle material in the United States, has the potential of leaching heavy metals (copper, lead, zinc, etc.), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs). To collect information on rainwater collection safety, a field study conducted in St. Paul, MN collected rainwater from asphalt shingled roofs of various ages. Households (38) submitted roof runoff samples from the same rain event. Results of samples composited by age in 5-year increments for metals and 3-year increments for VOCs and SVOCs showed that zinc, copper, and lead concentrations were below action levels, and that some non-USEPA regulated VOCs and SVOCs were present at low concentrations. A modified polyethyleneimine test (Wen et. al 2013) was used to test each individual sample and found a moderately negative correlation (r=- 0.6453) between shingle age and copper concentration. Future initiatives would include developing guidelines that are clear and educate homeowners real versus perceived danger of rain barrel water
Jack Indritz ’17: Leachate Metals and Organic Compounds in Roof Runoff by Shingle Age
Awards and Honors: Glenda and Jacob Domeier Award; Stockholm Junior Water Prize.
Project Abstract: Rain barrels are a popular way to mitigate urban runoff from rain water, which can be harmful to watersheds, but are often contaminated and do not have clean water. In order to ensure that rain barrel water is safe to use after coming in contact with the toxic material in shingles, it is important to assess what contaminants come from shingles that compromise collected water. First using a worst-case scenario and then using artificial, rapid aging to simulate annual weathering conditions, metal and organic compound levels were assessed in shingles to discover what age shingles were associate with different leached levels. Even from the worst case scenario, the shingles did not have chemical or metal levels that arrived close to federal water standards, while most parameters were not detected during testing. Shingles do not cause noteworthy water contamination from roofs, but further studies could investigate gutters and other possible sources of this contamination.
Mari Knudson ‘17: Improved phytoremediation of copper through the use of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria in Brassica juncea
Awards and Honors: Moves on to State for research paper and poster project.
Project Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the addition of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria such as Bacillus megaterium and Azotobacter chroococcum improved absorbance of copper in Brassica juncea. It was hypothesized that adding the bacteria would improve plant growth and copper absorbance. Bacteria were added to plants through the use of a Down to Earth biofertilizer inoculant and dissolved copper was added to soil through daily waterings of plants. Overall, the bacterial inoculant did not improve plant growth or copper uptake. However, this result is more likely the effect of an experimental flaw discovered late in the process which negatively impacted plants with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria. The addition of the bacterial inoculant resulted in a decline in survivorship relative to those plants without the inoculant. However, there was no significant difference in fresh or dry plant weight or in mean copper uptake between those plants with the biofertilizer added and those without.
Ben Mellin ‘17: The Synthesis, Characterization and Flexural Strength Assessment of a Block Copolymer
Awards and Honors: US Army Award; US Navy Award; Runner-Up, University of Minnesota Science Award; Runner-Up, 3M Award; moves on to State for research paper and poster project.
Project Abstract: In this study, the numerical relationship between percent monomer and flexural strength was investigated using a copolymer from δ-decalactone and L-Lactide. No previous study has identified the mathematical correlation between percent monomer and the strength of this specific polymer, and this knowledge could help to improve the understanding of polymers. After synthesizing the polymer and determining monomer ratio based on HNMR spectra, It was found that L-lactide was likely responsible for hardening the polymer, although conclusions about the exact numerical relationship between percent L-lactide and the strength of the polymer could not be drawn due to low yield and the presence of other variables that may have affected the results.
Emilia Topp-Johnson ’18: Terraformation and Cultivation Investigating Strategies to Establish Martian Agriculture
Awards and Honors: Winner, 11th Grade Graduate Women in Science Certificate of Excellence; Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom Research award; MARS CON award; ASU Award; Society for In Vitro Biology award; moves on to State for research paper and poster project. (Note: This is the latest in a string of awards Emilia has won for her original scientific research.)
Project Abstract: In light of the increasing proximity of the human population to the earth’s estimated carrying capacity and the projected decrease in agricultural production due to climate change, it would be beneficial to expand beyond our biosphere. The terraformation of Mars is the most attainable proposal. Establishing agriculture is necessary to support human life. Earth ecology indicates that a soil microbiome featuring root-extending mycorrhizal fungi is necessary for healthy plant life. In order to assess the necessity of this microbiological mutalist in a Martian context, the ability maize plants and mycorrhizae to thrive in ersatz Martian soil was compared to non-mycorrhizal Martian soil treatments and mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal soil treatments. Due to time limitations, plant development was assessed in terms of germination and seed mass after a period of five days. During this period, the germination that occurred was statistically insignificant. All soil treatments, however, had significantly larger seed masses than the unplanted, indicating that they were all in route to germination. While there was no significant difference between the mass of the Martian Mycorrhizal treatment and the Martian Control, the Mycorrhizal Control had significantly less mass than the Control (p = 0.0048). Since the mycorrhizae need water to thrive, the presence lack of this significant difference in Martian soil may indicate that the mycorrhizae is not thriving, which theoretically would be a significant detriment to the health of the plant as establishes roots. This, however, could only be determined if more time were allotted for the development of the plants.
Henry Zietlow ‘18: The Effects of Ammonia on the Burrowing habits of L. Cardium, a laboratory study
Awards and Honors: ISWEEP Olympiad winner; moves on to State for research paper and poster project.
Project Abstract: The effects of an ammonia/ammonium (NH3/NH4) treatment on the frequency and depth of burrowing for Lampsilis cardium mussels were observed over a three week laboratory study. While NH3/NH4 has been proven to be toxic to juvenile freshwater mussels, its effects in the field have yielded inconclusive results. L. cardium mussels, obtained from the Genoa national fish hatchery, were separated into two tanks. One tank was treated as a control tank with a NH3/NH4 concentration of 0 ppm, and one tank was elevated to .165 ppm. L. cardium in the ammonia treatment tank burrowed significantly more frequently (p=0.0001) and burrowed significantly deeper (p=.0004) than mussels in the controlled tank. These results of increased burrowing in response to the ammonia/ammonium treatment, in conjunction with other studies regarding the response of freshwater mussels to environmental stressors suggests that L. cardium exhibited a unique instinctive response to the presence of ammonia.
In addition to these eight, three students conducting high-level reseach with Seibel-Hunt were unable to compete due to the timing of their research. Sara Bohjanen ’17, who is conducting research at the University of Minnesota, is working on a project entitled “Chitin and Pathogenesis in Cryptococcus neoformans.” Ian Scott ’17 is also working at the University of Minnesota on the synthesis of nanoparticles on the Plasma Liquid Interface. Sarah Wheaton ’17 is studying intrinsic bias and gender stereotyping using eyetracking software at Macalester College.