Katahdin students present research findings at science symposium

    The Chemistry II students of Katahdin Middle and High School presented an overview of their year-long research project at a science symposium called Thinking Matters. This conference, held at the University of Southern Maine, on April 29, gave these high school students an opportunity to display their project along side projects of other high school students, college graduate students and postgraduate students.
    Dawn Pray, science teacher at Katahdin Middle and High School, who was in attendance for the student’s presentation, said “It is exciting to see our students collaborate and excel at the college level.  They did a wonderful job and I am very proud of their accomplishments”.
Contributed photograph
SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM — Attending Thinking Matters science symposium from Katahdin High School were, from left, Kolby Gallagher, Myah Smallwood, Mickey Savage, Christopher Cloukey, Kacey Fogarty, Brianna Landry and Andrew Vetter.
    These students, all high school seniors, have been working on a year-long research project, in collaboration with graduate students and professors from USM. This collaboration was made possible through a program called ScienceCorps, which is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Unfortunately for all of the high schools involved this is the last year of funding for this grant.
    Student Brianna Landry said “ScienceCorps was a great opportunity. It is sad that future KHS students will not be able to experience it.” 
    This program has afforded many high students the opportunity to become real scientists as they worked on research projects and reported their results to an audience of their peers.
    “ScienceCorps is a wonderful program. We learned a lot and it is too bad that this was the last year of the program,” said student Myah Smallwood.
    The Thinking Matters symposium consisted of a poster session in the morning, where student work is displayed for viewing by the public. Students are present to answer questions about their project as people move throughout the USM field house. The afternoon portion of the symposium is scheduled for oral presentations. The high school students present an overview of their research to other high school students in attendance. Each student group has a PowerPoint presentation to accompany their oral presentation. 
    “It was fun being able to see what other schools had worked on and to turn in our own hard work. It was great to have the opportunity to study science with people outside of our classroom,” explained student Kacey Fogarty.
    Student Andrew Vetter said:  “ScienceCorps was a great opportunity to experience scientific procedures and present our findings at a college level. It is sad to see the program end, because it was a good experience and will definitely help my future scientific pursuits.”
    Student Christopher Cloukey said ”ScienceCorps was a great experience because it required me to think through a problem during the research. I wasn’t just asked to read about someone else’s research.” Another student Mickey Savage said “our ScienceCorps experience brought my chemistry knowledge to a college level, showing we can achieve great things, with a little help.”
    Katahdin’s students, following up on the previous two year’s research projects, were studying the possibility of extremeophile microbial life forms that may be able to survive on Mount Chase, located in northern Penobscot County.
    During the 1970s studies were done on the geology and mineral availability of this area. It was determined at that time that the soil contained unusually large amounts of sulfur, as well as other minerals such as gold, silver, copper, and zinc. No mining has ever taken place on this mountain but it still holds interest to scientists as they research forms of life that are able to exist in extreme environmental conditions.
    Student Kolby Gallagher said, ”I enjoyed the fact that we are studying Mount Chase. It was very interesting to realize that there are organisms on Mount Chase that I didn’t even know about, and I have lived near the mountain my entire life.”
    Using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), brought to Katahdin High School by USM, the students were able to magnify their bacterial samples as part of their research project. This piece of advanced technology added an important aspect to the student project. This is technology that most high school students will never get the opportunity to operate, let alone use as part of a research project.
    The results of this year’s research were inconclusive. The students were unable to identify any specific species of bacteria from their research on Mount Chase. Results from past research have found that a bacterial species had been identified from the Mount Chase soil samples, but was the same species of bacteria that had been collected from the school’s control site. This species of acidophilic bacterium, located at the control site at Katahdin High School, is tolerant of high levels of acidity in the soil but can also survive in soils with a normal pH.
     The students who participated in this project were: Christopher Cloukey, Kacey Fogarty, Kolby Gallagher, Brianna Landry, Mickey Savage, Myah Smallwood and Andrew Vetter.
    All of these students plan on attending college in the fall, with most going on in some science-related field. This year-long research project has given the students the opportunity to work as scientists. The students, through this project, have had the opportunity to network with college professors and graduate students, and have gained exposure to new technologies and equipment. It was an exciting opportunity for all involved.