BOWLING GREEN — After six weeks of conducting scientific research at Bowling Green State University, high school students in blazers and dresses stood proudly in front of poster boards to present their results at the college.
Nine rising juniors and seniors from six area high schools presented the results of those projects, which they conducted as part of BGSU’s Parents Involvement with Children Nurturing Intellectual Curiosity in Science program, or PICNICS, which is meant to expose seven to 10 high students a year to research in chemical sciences.
Students from Perrysburg, Ottawa Hills, Eastwood, Sylvania Southview, Fremont Ross, and Bowling Green high schools stood side by side this week as visitors walked from student to student, explaining to them the topic of their research, how they conducted their research, the results they found, and what they learned.
Urvi Viamajala, 16, a rising junior at Southview, explained to passersby the process of creating hexagonal benzene, which creates graphene nanoribbons that are used in creating electronics.
The aspiring scientist, who is toying with the idea of pursuing a career in chemistry, said she went into the program not knowing what to expect but was pleasantly surprised by the work environment and appreciated how helpful the graduate students were.
“I had a lot of fun,” Urvi said. “I was excited to come in and work in the lab, and my mentors were really helpful. They helped me [but] they weren’t overbearing. They just watched me but if I did have questions, they answered, and they let me do all of it by myself.”
Programs like PICNICS are important for high school students interested in STEM subjects because they’re able to work through their “fear of the unknown,” said Jayaraman Sivaguru, a professor in the department of chemistry at BGSU.
He often compares overcoming that fear to someone learning how to drive for the first time, Mr. Sivaguru said.
“When you’re first driving your car, you’re very afraid because you don’t know how to drive,” he said. “Once you drive, you get the confidence and then you drive it very easily.
Research is the same way,” Mr. Sivaguru said. “When somebody learns what research is all about, they get hooked. That’s what we want from future generations, to embrace STEM.”
Emiley Barickman, 17, a rising senior at Fremont Ross High School, will likely be a part of the next generation of scientists.
She’s thinking about pursuing science or engineering, Emiley said, finding herself leaning more toward a career in environmental engineering.
She did her project on removing microplastics from human waste to prevent the microplastics attached to that waste from being distributed into tap water and other water systems, she said.
“About 20 percent of human waste is microplastics,” the young scientist said. “It is everywhere. Everything you touch is microplastics. ... My project studied three different enzymes.
“We used a meat tenderizer, a septic tank cleaner, and trypsin. ... If microplastics would be damaged in every way, [we tried to figure out] which one is the most cost effective way to remove the microplastics because, obviously, you don’t want to be re-ingesting that stuff,” she said.
Medha Ramaswamy, 16, a rising junior at Southview High School, studied non-Newtonian fluids and their applications to products like condiments.
“Imagine you have a bottle of ketchup and a pizza,” Medha said. “It’s your favorite pizza and you’re just about to dig in, but there’s a problem, your ketchup is stuck and it won’t come out.
“You start shaking the bottle ... all of a sudden, it’s all over your clothes. That was a change in viscosity based on the applied force,” she said. “We basically studied this on the molecular level.”
Medha wants to do something in chemistry, but she wants to work somewhere in the medical field.
“I want to do something medicine related but this has made me consider biomedical engineering,” she said.
When BGSU staff and organizers of the program shared remarks with the students during the event, BGSU President Rodney Rogers encouraged each student to keep the drive for curiosity alive.
“We need more great scientists,” he said. “We look forward to wherever your career may take you. ... You’re going to make a difference in the world, and that is about creating public good.”
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