SCIENCE EGGSPERIENCE: Waterloo biology students find success in failed experiment – Finger Lakes Times

WATERLOO Lisa Parish tells her high school biology students that science isnt linear or neat.

Those 11th- and 12th-graders learned that firsthand over the past month while conducting their own experiment trying to hatch chicks outside of their shells.

The students in Parishs Finger Lakes Community College Gemini biology classes conceived of the experiment late last year after 12-grader Malissa Temple came across a YouTube video of a Japanese class conducting a similar exercise successfully. Parish told her students if they wanted to try it, they had to fashion the experiment themselves.

They took her up on the challenge.

Earlier this year they appeared before the school board to solicit support and funding, calling their project The Shell-less Eggsperiment.

That support was granted and after spring break the students began what Parish has described as a wild ride.

The allure of trying to get chicks to hatch outside of their shells is the ability to gain an unimpeded view of embryonic development.

Getting to that point meant the students had to order a slew of materials not just the eggs, but egg culture, cups, sterilized plastic wrap and sterilized cotton balls, senior Connor Parrow explained. The students sterilized the cups themselves with alcohol and an ultraviolet chamber. They also had to add a calcium supplement to the bottom of the cup.

Basically all the calcium comes from eggshells so we had to make up for that somehow, said junior Ashley Ross, who said this experience has transformed her from someone who was not much of a science person into someone who may study it after high school.

Its really nice to do live science, she said.

The students started with 20 eggs and lost four right away when the eggs were cracked. They learned quickly on that first weekend that science demands consistent conditions and throws you its share of curve balls.

For the eggs to develop in the incubator they were using, conditions had to be at 102-103 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 percent humidity. Over that first weekend, the humidifier malfunctioned and the students had to jerry-rig a replacement to add more water.

By the middle of that next week, only four embryos remained and the students were leaving study halls and coming in after school to check on them and rotate the cups on a certain schedule so the embryos wouldnt stick to the membranes.

This is my home now, joked senior Devin Waugh.

As you can see we are clearly dedicated to this, echoed fellow senior Milla Turner. Were missing class.

By Day 7 of the experiment even with just four embryos remaining the students were able to identify a black dot as the eye, could see blood vessels and even beating hearts. Their project had garnered the attention of the entire school community, teachers and students alike.

But as Parish had warned, science doesnt advance according to plan and the group encountered a problem with the incubator.

As they were trying engineer a larger bottle to fill the humidifier to keep the humidity levels up, water accidentally spilled and damaged the incubators mother board.

We used a heat lamp to try to make the incubator last through the night, Parish wrote in an email. It seemed to be working but during the six-hour stretch we were at home the incubator got too hot (110 degrees).

The following morning two of the three remaining embryos were dead. Parish said that last one stayed alive for another 30-plus hours and during that time its growth was incredible.

It went through too much trauma though and at high temps like that enzymes denature so I would imagine something developmentally went wrong and the process was aborted, she said.

There is a happy ending, however.

Parish said the school district ordered the class a new incubator, which was to arrive last week. The group quarantined the preparation room to ensure sterile conditions and has started its second trial. And even though their first effort did not succeed, they refrigerated those embryos so they could view them under dissecting scopes.

I am very impressed with them all, Parish said. I told them this is real science. Science isnt linear like how you are normally taught in school. We learn what we need to learn and regroup and do again.

The students work has been featured on the districts Twitter page (#prideinourtribe) and actually caught the attention of The North American Vascular Biological Organization, Parish said.

[They] liked our tweets and some kids were actually communicating with scientists about the project. How neat! They retweeted the kids work and it has since been liked by a cell regenerative science lab in Dallas. The power of social media is unbelievable, she said.

The students had praise for Parish as well and said it was her hands-off approach that has made their work especially meaningful.

Shes awesome, Temple said. She said lets see how we can make this happen.

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SCIENCE EGGSPERIENCE: Waterloo biology students find success in failed experiment - Finger Lakes Times