Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Students compete at Delaware Valley Science Fair
UPPER PROVIDENCE>> Whether Ralph Lawton wins the day at the Delaware Valley Science Fairs or not, his impressive research on the effects of vaping, or smoking the electronic nicotine delivery system known as the e-cigarette, may get a lot of folks to rethink their aromatic habit.
Lawton was one of 1,000 young, amateur scientists who converged on the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks on Wednesday to display and talk about their projects in the hope of winning a chunk of more than $2 million in scholarship and prizes.
Now in its 68th year, the Delaware Valley Science Fairs (DVSF) spotlights independent research in more than a dozen scientific categories by students in grades 6 through 12 who have advanced through the ranks with their science, technology, engineering and mathematics research at the local level.
As judges pored over their notes late Wednesday afternoon after making the rounds and scrutinizing the exhibits earlier, Lawton, a University Scholars Program of West Chester senior looked at his informational exhibit titled “The Smoking Gun: Toxicological Effects of Electronic Cigarettes on Epithelial Cells Using Air Liquid Interface” and explained how his friends, who are fans of e-cigarettes, helped inspire his research.
“We were debating whether or not they are safe for your lungs. It turned out that we have no idea whether or not they’re safe,” Lawton said, adding that the devices are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. “It was personal to me, so I wanted to investigate.”
Lawton studied the effects of aerosol generated
from the e-cigarette on a human lung bronchial cell line (H292), exposing cells to various products, solvents and battery voltages, which ultimately had “significant negative effects on the viability and metabolic activity of H292 cells.”
Lawton allowed that he could not have achieved his results without the help of a mentor who was furnished by DVSF Communications Director Sheila Romine, who runs the mentorship program.
“Hewas looking for amentor for his project, so I connected him with someone I knew in the cigarette industry, who then connected me with the National Institutes ofHealth, who directed us to this world expert who said, ‘Yes, I’ll talk to this young student,’’’ Romine said.
Lawton spent last summer refining his experiments in the mentor’s lab in Buffalo.
“I got great mentorship and free reign to do e-cigarette experiments as I saw fit. I got to figure out how I wanted to take on the problem, any way I wanted to,” he recalled. “This was a very hands-on, in-depth project.”
Curiously, Lawton’s caseby-case flavor analysis of various products revealed some intriguingly different effects of the e-cigarette flavors.
“Strawberry has a very toxic effect, but pineapple (pina colada) has a very benign effect,” he said. “The flavors are recognized as safe by the food industry. However, when you take a food flavoring, heat it to 400 degrees through an atomizer, and inhale it, they’re not necessarily safe anymore.”
Did Lawton, who does not use e-cigarettes, think his conclusion that the tobacco alternative “represents a major public health issue” would convince his friends to quit?
“I hope so,” he said, smiling.
DVSF features independent research in 15 scientific categories by students who have completed science, technology, engineering and mathematics research projects and have advanced after competing in their local fairs.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held on Thursday at the Expo Center.
Exhibits spanned a diverse field of categories, from Behavioral/Social Sciences (“Gender Differences in Resolving Cognitive Dissonance,” Stephen Wisser, Emmaus High School); Botany (“Salt Tolerance inGrain Crops,” Ilana Zeitze, Upper Dublin High School) and Zoology (“Range Expansion of the Northern Cardinal,” ZackMoyer, Souderton Area High School) to Engineering (“Something to Talk About: Modeling the Vocal Cords and Elasticity Correlation,” Michael Farina, Bishop ShanahanHigh School) and Environmental (“Eco-Friendly Building Material Alternative toPortland Cement & Concrete,” Corson Chao, North PennHigh School).
Romine is nowin her 21st year of reveling in the possibilities of the Delaware Valley Science Fairs.
“In 1995 my sixth-grade daughter won a science fair, I said, ‘What’s that?’ I didn’t know what science fairs were. I got excited about it because I was teaching high school biology at the time and started sponsoring my own students to go forward with their projects.”
In addition to the growing mentorship efforts — “We go out into the schools and talk to teachers about how to oversee a science fair in their school,” Romine said — it’s theomnipresent invention of modern times that has proved to be a boon to young scientists, she allowed.
“They have computers now, which they didn’t have before. They have a different way of getting sources and background research.”
Dennis Erlick, a renowned scientist and former Central High School, Philadelphia, science research director, pointed out the uniqueness of the DVSF program, which he said provides hands-on experience that is typically unparalleled in the classroom: “We want our students to be able to do stuff with the information they learn. We’re really preparing the scientists of the future.”