Heuvelton Student Takes First Place at Statewide Research Conference with Clarkson IMPETUS
Zoe Whalen, a seventh-grade student at Heuvelton Central School, recently placed first in her category at the New York State Department of Education’s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) statewide research conference. Whalen presented a study on the effects of caffeine on student mental health through the Clarkson Discovery Challenge, a part of Clarkson’s Integrated Math and Physics for Entry to Undergraduate STEM (IMPETUS) program.
Since September, a cohort of North Country students have been working on individualized research projects as part of the Clarkson Discovery Challenge. At a local competition in February, teams of students presented posters to a panel of judges with hopes of securing a spot at the STEP Statewide Student Conference. Natalie Collier, Alexis Hudson, Finnley Wagner from Carthage Central took third place with their project focusing on mechanical hardware in camera drones, second place went to Whalen for her study on the effects of caffeine on student mental health, and first place went to Nadia Atkinson and Maia Berhard for their work on applications of olfactory stimulation in student learning.
Whalen, Atkinson and Berhard spent the remaining month honing their analyses and refining their studies and then headed to Albany, NY to present their work alongside students from the roughly 50 other STEP programs across New York State. Nadia and Maia came in a very close third in their category and Whalen took home the first-place trophy in her division.
“These young scientists learn how to take a topic they are curious about and turn it into a research question. Every year that I have students participate I learn something new. Students love to share what they are learning,” said Jamie Bush, Whalen’s teacher-mentor at Heuvelton Central, who has been with the program for more than 12 years. “I am so proud of all the students who are brave enough to present their findings at the conference, it is an experience they will never forget!”
“The secret to the success of these students was their active involvement at all levels of their research project, from formulating an original research question and conducting a background literature review, to designing their experiment, analyzing the results, and presenting their findings in a poster format,” added St. Lawrence University Associate Professor of Biology Alex Schreiber, the program's Director of Research. “The availability of high quality consultation support from program coaches, Clarkson undergraduate and graduate students, and Clarkson faculty provided the students with an invaluable competitive edge and an amazing learning experience.”
Clarkson STEP provides students with academic enrichment and research experiences in science, mathematics, and technology content areas and consists of summer and academic year components. Activities range from a computer programming game challenge, conducting original research projects for a statewide competition, interacting with college mentors and licensed STEM professionals, to designing and analyzing a model roller coaster.
