By Lynne Hendricks
Correspondent
March 24, 2009 03:58 am NEWBURYPORT — Times are good in the competitive halls of Newburyport High School and not just in the sporting arena. The kids hanging in the science lab are kicking atoms and taking awards. For the third year in a row, Newburyport students
outshone competitors at the state regional science fair in Somerville,
earning the right to be counted among the best young scientific minds
in the state of Massachusetts. Sophomores Matt Orlando and Peter Furlong, along with
freshman Alexis Cole, learned Saturday night that their science fair
projects had been selected from the field of regional competitors to
compete at the upcoming state fair at MIT April 30 to May 2. As Cole, Furlong and Orlando accepted their honors in
Somerville, a team of seven Newburyport High School students were busy
presenting their engineering study on reducing the drag of jet engine
aircraft to a team of energy industry executives at the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington, D.C. They won the all-expenses-paid trip and
opportunity to participate by advancing as first-place winners of the
Real World Design Challenge at the state level. Thayer Adsit, Philip Arets, Belle Douglass, Irene
Jacqz, Molly Picillo, Travis Souther and Tom Svirsky, along with their
team coach and NHS technology teacher, Sarah Leadbeater, took second
place at the national competition, contributing to an overall sense of
pride in accomplishment that seems to be growing by the day at the high
school. "I'm very pleased that two of our project groups are
moving on the state finals," said Newburyport High School Principal
Mike Parent yesterday, who credited the hard work of students and
teachers for creating a science curriculum and program that's earning a
reputation at the state level through the quality projects students are
presenting. "Every year we've raised the bar as far as how well
our students have done (at the science fair)," Parent said. "I think
our teachers are really promoting it. And our students have been
putting in the time, energy and effort. With the mentoring of our
science staff from early September, I think all those things have kind
of gelled. Kudos to the students and to the teachers who've been
mentoring them." For those who remember science fairs as opportunities
to test the gravitational defiance of a growing bean stalk in a plastic
cup, the complex subject matter today's students are electing to
research is pretty amazing. Cole chose to study the basics of sound absorption of
a college dorm room for her award-winning project, and regional winners
Furlong and Orlando spent weeks in the VA Hospital laboratory testing
the levels of estrogen in the public water supply. Parent thinks the sophistication of projects like
theirs is indicative of a general hunger for more advanced classes in
the district, fed by enthusiastic teachers and a student body that has
responded to the challenging material. "With our classes now offering courses like forensics
and higher level science classes, I think we're going to see even more
sophisticated projects than we ever have," Parent said. Orlando said he and project partner Furlong got the
idea for their estrogen project by reading articles on the
contamination of San Francisco's water supply with pharmaceutical waste
like estrogen. Further study of other cities revealed similar problems,
but both students were dismayed to find no test results for Boston and
its surrounding cities. Since estrogen in the water supply has been linked to
early puberty in girls, late puberty in boys and the switching of
gender in fish and animal populations, the boys were captivated by the
relevance of this subject matter. "Right now, science researches have reported fish that
have both male and female sex hormones," said Orlando of estrogen's
impacts. "Some have changed genders completely. There have also been
reports of polar bears in heavily polluted areas that have both female
and male sex organs. That's a mammal, so that's kind of scary. Since
all vertebrates have the same sex hormones, they're worried this could
have an impact on humans in the future." Of the 27 sources of water the two tested, including
bottled water and water samples filtered through a Brita water
filtration system, all the samples tested positive for estrogen,
Furlong said. "The places we found with the highest levels of
estrogen were Exeter, N.H.," Furlong said. "They were the highest. The
lowest was Yarmouth. Newburyport was the second lowest." "This experiment pretty much left us with more
questions than answers," said Orlando, who explained the complex
process he and Furlong underwent to get their result. "We went to a lab at the VA laboratory in West
Roxbury, and with the help of a research scientist, we performed an
enzymatic immunoassay — an antibody antigen reaction," said Orlando,
which in short is a means of getting the naturally occurring Estradiol
to bind to mouse protein. Cole said she has always been interested in how sound
travels, and although she started out with an interest in soundproof
windows, her interest grew to include some pretty advanced theories of
how to control its speed and clarity. "The main purpose of my project was to work with the
dynamics of sound absorption, and from the result, I created a list of
the top 10 ways to acoustically enhance a college dorm room," said
Cole, explaining how sound bounces, reflects and travels at different
speeds depending on a room's building materials and design attributes.
Just by draping a blanket over a couch, she learned you could alter a
room's soundproofing qualities. "I worked with three materials — acoustic panels,
absorption sheets and this recycled rubber," Cole said. "You can line
them within the ceilings or along the walls and that will absorb the
echoing noises that we hear." There's no question in Parent's mind: The students of
NHS are on a winning streak. The NHS Advanced Theatre group recently
advanced to the state semifinals with their production of "Eurydice,"
and the varsity hockey team took home their first state title in the
school's history. "We're kind of on a run lately with a lot of differing
things," Parent said. "I don't want to wake up because as principal and
administrator I share with staff members that we truly are proud of the
efforts of our students in many different areas in the past couple
months." Parent said the run of success is a team effort. "The list is on and on," he said. "To me none is more
important than another, and it encompasses what our staff and students
are doing on a daily basis, because if they weren't getting the proper
teaching and skill sets, they wouldn't be excelling like this."
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