ARMS Student Wins Grand Prize at State Science Fair
Congratulations to ARMS student Tara Murty, who won a grand prize at the state science fair. Murty worked with 8th grade science teacher Jennifer Welborn and Smith College Chemistry Professor Kate Queeney to investigate the effect of surface chemistry on the growth of biofilms.
Murty's project was an extension of research that Queeney's students were conducting at Smith College. The goal of the experiment was to compare two different types of surfaces, hydrophobic and hydrophilic, to see which is more conducive to the growth of biofilms. Biofilms are aggregations of bacteria which adhere to a surface when it is submerged in a fluid. Murty used water from Puffer's Pond as the environment for growing the biofilms.
Biofilms are very thin; the unit of measure is an angstrom, which is a hundred-millionth of a centimeter. Thus, the biofilms cannot be measured with ordinary equipment. In the photo below, Murty is using an ellipsometer in the lab at Smith. This device allowed her to measure the thickness of biofilms by directing a laser light onto the sample. The reflected light is then detected by the ellipsometer and can be analyzed to determine the thickness of the sample. Murty's measurements confirmed results that Smith students had found in the lab. She observed that hydrophobic surfaces grow thicker biofilms than hydrophilic surfaces. She presented her results on a poster board and also in a brochure.
Murty’s biofilms not only followed the same general trend as has been documented in Queeney’s lab, but their thicknesses were on the same order of magnitude. “This makes the case that our carefully controlled experiments in the lab are truly relevant to what happens in the natural environment,” said Queeney, adding “if I didn't believe our lab experiments had relevance to real systems, we wouldn't be doing them. But ‘relevance’ and ‘close correspondence’ are two very different things.”
Murty was introduced to Queeney by Welborn, her mentor at ARMS. Welborn recognized Murty as not only an exceptional student in science, but also someone with outstanding personal qualities. Welborn commented, "Tara is really a remarkable person is so many ways...she is well-rounded (an excellent dancer, for example), very bright, driven, calm and even tempered, focused, methodical, detail oriented, funny, kind, generous, and thoughtful." Welborn noted that Murty is still modest, despite all of her accomplishments. "She is truly a kid, not a junior adult, which is refreshing."
At the middle school, Murty worked with Welborn as part of an after-school club known as Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Research Academy for Young Scientists, or STEMRAYS for short. This grant-funded program is connected to ongoing research projects at UMass, GCC and Smith College. Both 7th and 8th grade students stayed after school for two hours once a week to complete an authentic research project connected to the theme of global environmental change and sustainability.
At the state science fair, Murty joined two other students representing ARMS: Hannah Lang, who won a first prize for her project on Electricity Generating Floor Tiles and Simon Elliott, who won Honorable Mention for a project on Biomass vs. Fossil Fuel.
Read more information about Tara Murty and her prize-winning project in this article from the Amherst Bulletin.