Big things are happening in East Hampton High School’s science research program, whose students recently returned from two rounds of the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, or LISEF, with a number of awards — including a first-place finish in the plant sciences competition for Leah Fromm, who will now go on to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles in May.
But first, Leah and her peers in the program, totaling 61 students, will show off their hard work at next Thursday’s Science Research Symposium at the high school. Starting at 6 p.m., the 13 seniors will give brief presentations of their projects, which have been three years in the making. After that, all students will show off their research during an open viewing session in the cafeteria. The public has been invited to attend.
Dr. Paul Rabito, who teaches the Methods in Research program alongside Dr. Stephanie Forsberg and Renee McGuire, said the symposium will showcase “real-world, practical applications of research.”
“A lot of the kids, living where we live, are doing water science,” he added.
Dr. Forsberg said the program prepares students to not only be competitive in science, “but also in their future careers in college and university research past East Hampton High School. We have so many students who utilize the skill sets that they learn in science research to launch them into undergraduate, graduate, and career paths for a lifetime of successes and accolades beyond just science research. We are carving out the next generation of lifelong learners and contributors to society.”
Among the 13 seniors in the program, 10 were selected to compete in the first round of LISEF, which featured 405 students from across Long Island, including much larger high schools that have the advantage of being geographically closer to university resources, advanced facilities, and professional mentors within the various science and engineering industries. Those schools, like Jericho, Syosset, and Manhasset, routinely score wins on the national and international levels. This was the best LISEF showing yet for East Hampton High School.
“We are the easternmost high school on Long Island, but we are competing with and holding our own against some of the science powerhouse districts,” Dr. Forsberg said.
Leah was joined by three peers, Meredith Browne, Dylan Cashin, and Cameron Mitchell, in earning awards in the first round of the fair. Leah’s first-place project entailed growing lettuce hydroponically to test the effectiveness of certain nutrients added directly into the water. She first used a sports locker room at the school to grow the plants, but eventually had to move her materials to a teacher’s prep room.
“It’s kind of insane to even think about it,” she said. She had been unsure of what topic she wanted to study at first, saying, “I landed on this topic out of coincidence. I ended up really enjoying it, and now I’m going to college at Cornell to study plant sciences, which is all thanks to Methods in Research, which is really cool. Through my next four years I’ll get to do this type of research. So even though my hands-on portion at East Hampton has ended, it has opened the door for me to continue doing this in the future.”
Leah, who was recently named the salutatorian of the class of 2024, will be one of 1,600 students from more than 80 countries competing in Los Angeles for a pool of prizes with a total value of $8 million.
Meredith earned third place in the plant sciences competition along with the Ricoh Sustainable Development Award, recognizing that her research “has demonstrated the principles and technical innovations that offer the greatest potential for sustainable development.” She also won 400 trees planted in her honor. Her project involved growing lettuce “under salt stress” using “mycorrhizal inoculants,” a type of fungi.
Dylan took home second place in LISEF’s engineering competition. Her project concerned a species of brown algae. She experimented with water conditions and chemical extraction methods to extract biofuel from the algae.
Cameron took home an honorable mention in plant sciences and also earned a United States Metric Association membership in recognition of his “superb quantitative analysis of his data.” His project involved growing green peas using common chemical phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers in combination with fungi.
“It felt really, really good to finally see that some of my research and effort had some sort of outcome,” he said of his awards.
Of the upcoming science symposium, Cameron said that “it will be a great event full of new, exciting proposals and research in areas that people don’t already know about. It will enlighten or enlarge your view of the world.”