Science Research Students Striving to Make a Difference
Science Research Students Striving to Make a Difference
More than 30 Seaford High School students are striving to make meaningful contributions to the world as participants in the Science Research program. Led by teachers Lilly Alaimo and Alexis Charles, there are 31 students in three levels of the class, and they are working toward various competitions later this year.
The young researchers select projects based on their owns areas of interest. In the Level 1 class, Ms. Alaimo and Ms. Charles teach the components of science research and how to collect and analyze data. By the time the students reach Level 3, they are largely working independently, with their teachers serving as facilitators.
“Science research is truly a student-guided class,” Ms. Charles said. “We have really self-motivated students here.”
Ms. Alaimo noted that the research spans a wide range of scientific disciplines, from studies of animals and the human body, to engineering projects.
“It's a lot of work,” Ms. Alaimo said, “but it’s really rewarding, both for us and the students. They have the choice of what they learn.”
Senior Michaelle Evangelista, in the Level 3 class, is finalizing a paper that will be published in the Journal of Emerging Investigators. She is studying nicotinamide mononucleotide and vibroacoustic therapy as two possible non-toxic treatments to slow the progression of cancer, both separately and together. Her experiments have been conducted on yeast cells that were mutated to represent cancer cells and hopes to test on an organism in the future.
This is her second year working on the project, as she continues to collect and add more data. Michelle, who hopes to earn a doctorate and become a pediatric oncologist in the future, said three years in the research program has been very beneficial.
“I love research; it’s always been a passion of mine,” she said. “Since I want to go into the medical field, having the ability to start in high school will help me in the future.”
Competitions that Seaford students enter their work into include the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, Long Island Science Congress, Regeneron Science Talent Search and South Asian American Women’s Alliance science fairs.
Junior Kyle Simcox, in his third year in science research, is evaluating ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery on the performance of Major League Baseball pitchers. He is collecting data on 50 players who have undergone the procedure and analyzing their performance three years before and three years after the surgery. He is looking at specific statistics that measure player performance and all data will be between 2010 and 2024.
Once all the data is collected, he will use artificial intelligence to computer model the likely post-surgical performance of a player. Kyle added that he chose the project because he loves baseball and wanted to find a unique way to contribute knowledge to the sport.
Ms. Alaimo and Ms. Charles noted that science research supports several of the Seaford Scholar traits. They must be flexible, reflective and resilient, as sometimes the results aren’t what was expected and they need to adjust to their projects. Academic honesty is the hallmark of a principled student and science researcher. They are innovators in coming up with unique projects and communicators by clearly articulating their projects and their findings to judges at competitions.
