PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Three students from Presque Isle Middle School’s Gifted and Talented Program recently won first place at the state level of a competition that allowed them to expand their skills as young scientists and conduct research that could have positive impacts on their community.
Eighth graders Naomi Wood, Dominick Poisson and Matthew Hedrich, also known as the “Just Keep Swimming” team, entered the eCybermission Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics competition in fall 2017 and completed their study of the effects of the generic prescription painkiller naproxen sodium on zebrafish embryos in February.
eCybermission is a web-based competition sponsored by the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program that is free for students in grades six through nine and challenges them to ask questions, define problems that exist in their community and design solutions to those problems based on the four educational components of STEM.
The students chose their topic in order to study potential birth defects that could arise in zebrafish embryos if the female fish received overdoses of the drug. Zebrafish embryos have a 73 percent similarity in genotype to human embryos compared to a 57 percent similarity between human and mice embryos.
Their research found that large doses of naproxen sodium severely increased the chances for birth defects in embryos. Many of the embryos turned black and broke apart as a result of the overdoses, proving that pregnant women should never take the drug.
“Each time we experimented, we had to figure out how much naproxen sodium a pregnant woman would have to take in order to overdose and then divide that number to see how much the zebrafish could take before they overdosed,” Wood said.
Gifted and Talented Program Adviser Leslee Mahon obtained 12 male and 12 female zebrafish from the University of Maine’s Aquaculture Research Institute, two of which died during experiments from unknown causes. Dr. Carol Kim and Dr. Melody Neely, from the University of Maine’s research institute, often gave the students advice on how to best breed the zebrafish and information regarding the species’ life cycle.
Three eighth grade science students at Presque Isle Middle School — Naomi Wood, Dominick Poisson and Matthew Hedrich — recently won first place in the online eCybermission STEM competition for their research on the effects of the painkiller naproxen sodium on zebrafish embryos. Their study concluded that overdoses of the drug caused birth defects in newborn zebrafish. Pictured here is their tank of zebrafish in Lisa Gordon’s science classroom on May 24. (Courtesy of Naomi Wood)
Wood, Poisson and Hedrich conducted their experiment seven times throughout the four month research period before they found a process that was successful. By conducting the study on their own, the students gained firsthand knowledge of the complex nature of scientific research.
“We realized that the fish wouldn’t breed if there was too much extra light hitting the tank. And if the water temperature was too high, the embryos would take longer to drop into the petri dishes and the adult fish would eat them,” Poisson said.
Eighth-grade math and science teacher Lisa Gordon allowed the three students to use her classroom to conduct experiments and was impressed with how their commitment to the project grew over time.
“They would come in before and after school and during weekends and vacations. On many days they arrived at 7 in the morning and stayed until 4:30 after school to observe the tank and record data,” Gordon said.
In addition to recording daily notes in science journals, the students completed a PowerPoint presentation to submit through the eCybermission website that included their problem statement, hypothesis, a list of materials used and 10 research sources, data charts and photos and an abstract that summarized their research in less than 250 words. Each of the three students received a $1,000 U.S. EE Savings Bond as a reward for winning first place.
Although they did not advance to the New England regional eCybermission competition, the students learned important lessons about teamwork, problem solving and persevering through setbacks and challenges.
“We were able to take lessons that we were already learning in class and apply them in a hands-on way,” Poisson said. “The project helped me walk away with skills that I didn’t have before we started.”
“I think that process showed us that if you work hard enough for something and don’t give up, then your efforts will pay off in the end,” Wood agreed.
