Inside the ASR laboratory

 

Last updated 12/4/2013 at 3:02pm



As state and national STEM standards continue to evolve, so must our methods for teaching science, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). At Odessa High School, one of the research models is a year-long course entitled Advanced STEM Research (or ASR as the students call it). The new ASR motto is: Science and engineering are verbs, not nouns!

For those new to the community, ASR is an elective science course where students create, conduct, and present unique student-driven STEM research. Students engaging in ASR make observations on the real world, create questions regarding their observations utilizing background research, formulate a hypothesis or engineering goal centered on those questions/observations, develop a method of quantitative experimentation, analyze the mathematical data set using appropriate statistical analysis, and discuss/conclude the details of the results in a concise, scientific manner. Each student is required to use technological means for creating, experimenting, and statistically analyzing the data sets.

The students become professionals in the field and seek out other professionals across the globe with whom to collaborate. Some of this year’s research includes:

Senior Griffey Powell collaborating with WSU-Tri-Cities on “Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Cellulosic Wheat Stalk for Biofuel,”

Senior Alexa Boss collaborating with the Vision Haus in Cheney on “Analyzing Retinal Vascular Tortuosity in Fundus Photography as an Indicator for Health,”

Junior Thorsen Wehr collaborating with the University of Washington on “Formation and Analysis of Focused Sound Waves with Varying Nonlinearity,”

Sophomore Stacia Lesser collaborating with WSU Spokane on “The Effect of Sleep Loss on Interleukin-37 and Memory Consolidation,”

Foreign exchange student and junior Fee Pilger, having recently joined ASR, is investigating research related to thoracic or cardiovascular surgery.

Visitors often frequent the ASR laboratory, and last week state representative Matt Manweller listened to the students’ research while also asking about secrets to their success. Manweller and the students came to a consensus that reduced class sizes equaled more opportunity and creativity in the classroom. He mentioned that the STEM research the ASR students were conducting was what he has seen from seniors at universities across Washington state; he thought this was a great way for students to experience science and engineering and was excited to hear the ASR students develop not just into people who are educated about science and engineering, but who develop the passion to pursue STEM-related careers.

The ASR students are currently being recognized for their efforts by being the Washington State STEM students of the week, recipients of a new fume hood and robotics kit from Saxton Bradley, Inc. in Seattle, as well as the Spokane STEM organization’s news blog: http://spokanestem.org/stem-blog.html. To see what ASR students are up to each week, follow their student-driven accounts on Twitter: @ohsASR or visit their student-driven website: http://www.wehrdscience.com/ASR.

 

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