Students inspired Southwestern Michigan College Educational Talent Search’s new Science Fair Camp July 8-12 for grades 6-12.

“We got the idea for this camp from a panel of our high-school students,” ETS Director Bethani Eichel said. “In our conversations, we kept hearing students say they wanted to go into science, but were not sure what career specifically. We hope a camp like this will allow students to explore science fields in a different way.”

Judges Dowagiac Middle School Principal Dr. Sean Wightman, DMS science teacher Traci Wightman and Cassopolis science teacher Jennifer Bloss awarded blue ribbons for first place to Mackenzie Stewart and Joel Russell Jr. of Edwardsburg for Bubbly Alien World.

Edwardsburg junior Camile Ritter, who won a red ribbon for Too Sweet, measuring sugar in popular drinks, was more in her element last summer at entrepreneur camp, since she wants to study business and culinary arts, then open a café.

Edible Worms by Dowagiac freshmen Savannah Kurzhal and Kirsten Smith captured white ribbons for third.

Participants also included: Cassopolis, Waylon Yakel, Jenna Lemon, Gianna Garibaldi, Jayden Pflug, Krista Blanchard, Miryrikal Johnson, Grayson Wood; Dowagiac, Melissa Vandenburg, Isabella File, Corbin Race, Drew Ferrier, Cameron Hammond, Matthew Lino, Abigail Ventura-Morales, Emmalyn Taylor, Prisila Manzano-Lorenzo, Charlie Spivey, Ava Younger, Payton Hemminger; Edwardsburg, Camden Foreman, Aidan Knepple, Hayden Kitch; and Marcellus, Serenity Singleton. Singleton, a sophomore, met her eighth grade partner, File, at entrepreneur camp last summer.

Presenters also discussed their projects with President Dr. Joe Odenwald; Dean Dr. Keith Howell, former Math/Science Department chairman; and former ETS director Maria Kulka.

Monday’s introduction to the six-part scientific method of a question to solve, research, formulating a hypothesis, experimentation with variables to confirm or disprove the hypothesis, step-by-step directions detailing the testing process and a conclusion summarizing results was taught by 13-year Dowagiac and Cassopolis middle school science teacher Amanda Solloway.

Solloway was joined Tuesday by her mentor, Dr. Yan Lu, Department of Biological Science professor at Western Michigan University. Lu earned her doctorate in botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005.

Lu serves as principal investigator of a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Teachers in the Biology of Plants, Animals, Microorganisms and their Environments (BIORETS) program at WMU.

Solloway researched “Toxicity of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFAS) on Plant Growth and Development” with Yu two summers ago as part of this seven-week summer professional development program.

Lu uses genetic, genomic, biochemical and physiological approaches to understand photosynthesis, photosynthetic complexes and how plants interact with their environments.

Solloway’s research was inspired by excessive amounts of PFAS found in Parchment’s water system in 2018.

The synthetic material used for firefighting foam, nonstick cookware, fast-food wrappers and water-repellent fabrics was present at 22 times higher than EPA health advisory levels.

Parchment was home to a paper mill for which PFAS was the main ingredient in oil and grease repellents used in laminated paper products.

For pairs beginning experimentation and research across 14 project areas in the William P.D. O’Leary Building biology lab, Solloway’s WMU poster board helped envision Thursday’s culmination.

Wednesday’s career speaker, Amy Duckworth of Niles, a 2023 Edwardsburg graduate, is an ETS alumna who “did as many camps as I possibly could,” including agriculture, entrepreneurship and firefighting.

Entering her sophomore year studying entomology at Michigan State University, she hopes to research arthropods in Madagascar, an island country off Africa’s southeastern coast, 9,100 miles away and home to hissing beetles. A beautiful moth from there led her “down a rabbit hole” to travel possibilities and MSU’s monthly Bug Club.

“Arthropods are basically crustaceans (crabs, lobsters), arachnids (spiders, scorpions), insects and myriapods (centipedes, millipedes),” said Duckworth, wearing a “Mariposa” T-shirt (Spanish for butterfly).

“As a kid I really liked ants. I considered studying birds, plants, bugs or aerospace engineering,” she said.

Duckworth used strategies gleaned from Introduction to Pest Management (ticks, fleas, bedbugs) to rid her father’s kayak shop of earwigs without spraying pesticides.

For a bug-pinning class/lab this fall, Duckworth is a third of the way to catching 150 different species of insects, though “butterflies are a nightmare.” An app on her phone helps identify bugs.

Entomology has applications across numerous fields, including forensics, agriculture, research, veterinary science and medicine.

Wednesday afternoon, using Mill Pond sediment and soil Solloway lugged in, campers created Winogradsky columns to enrich microbes, growing specific types of organisms to population sizes larger than found in nature.

Camp concluded Friday with a trip to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Each participant received a light blue shirt and an Olympic-style enamel pin of the Science Fair Camp logo.