Clouds on Mars? Migrating birds?
Darien students to represent CT in national science symposium
DARIEN — With research projects on identifying clouds on Mars and tracking the evolution of songbirds, two Darien High School students are headed to New Mexico after top finishes in a statewide science and humanities symposium.
Seniors Sebastian Mengwall and Lily Donzeiser placed second and fourth place, respectively, in the Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium earlier this month.
In late April, they will be two of five students to represent the state at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Albuquerque, competing for thousands of dollars in scholarship money.
The state symposium is sponsored by the University of Connecticut Health system and asked students to present original research on a range of topics in science, technology and the humanities.
For both Mengwall and Donzeiser, the placements come after years of work on their respective research topics through the threeyear Authentic Science Research program at the high school. Through the program, students search for mentors, typically scientists in the field, to oversee and collaborate on their chosen projects.
Mengwall's project used machine learning to identify clouds on Mars “efficiently and accurately,” he said. He has worked with a scientist at NASA for his project, and said the research has generated datasets that can be used by scientists to better spot climate trends.
“We are able to finally understand more about how the atmosphere of Mars is supposed to work,” Mengwall said. “This would be good if we want to try to put more rovers or even potentially humans on Mars — we want to know where clouds are, so we can start predicting them. And if we can better understand Mars, we can also look outside our solar system, potentially, and look for other planets.”
Donzeiser worked with a researcher to practice species distribution modeling, evaluating how climate change has shaped the evolutionary responses of the scarlet tanager, a migratory songbird.
“How I like to explain my project to people is that evolution is slow, and climate change is fast,” Donzeiser said. “So will certain species be able to adapt?”
Brittany Knight, the regional director for the symposium, said this year, the symposium's review committee looked at about 70 applications. Individual high schools are allowed to send up to nine applicants, with only six total applicants from each school allowed to present during the statewide symposium.
“What is so cool was that even though we're in this age of COVID and students having to do it more independently on their own from home, that it's not deterring them from research, and they're stepping
up to the challenge,” Knight said.
A number of students from Darien have placed at the statewide level in recent years, Knight said.
She lauded Donzeiser and Mengwall's projects in
particular for the far-reaching implications of their research.
“It's amazing for these students to have these observations and questions in their life and then to really go after them,” Knight said.