Philip Winchell
Mohini Parvate seems like a lovely high school teen after spending a few minutes chatting with her. Come fall she’ll be going into the Junior year at Dublin Jerome High School and is an avid cross-country athlete, running every day for the summer season.
But once she starts talking about her passion for science, it’s clear Parvate is a special kind of high school student.
“I’m really interested in research,” she says. “Anything from biology to bacteria to cells.”
Woah.
Parvate began taking an interest in science after she watched her older brother delve into it himself. Her parents then urged her to take part in State Science Day, a program run by The Ohio Academy of Science. Thousands of students compete in independent research projects, solving problems and producing results in the form of presentations. Students are given scores and may potentially move forward from the local level to districts to state. Each level is more competitive than the last and requires an immense amount of skill.
In her years participating in the program, she’s researched environmental issues – particularly with algae. It’s hard to imagine any teenager getting excited about that kind of thing, but Parvate was passionate about her research in how to best eliminate algae from Lake Erie, where it has been an issue for a number of years. The next year, her studies did the exact opposite, trying to prove the benefits of algae used as a biofuel.
“I had to grow it myself and test it in different situations,” Parvate says. “It was interesting to see the results I found.”
“There’s not always a clear path. If you don’t get the results you want, don’t stop – just try it a different way.” - Mohini Parvate
This year was Parvate’s fifth consecutive year participating, and she qualified for the International State Science day, which took place in May in Phoenix, Arizona.
“One of the chaperones calls it ‘the Super Bowl of science fairs’,” Parvate says, laughing.
This year, the project she worked on to get to the international level was all about antibiotic resistance and attempted to study how to undo any opposition bacteria would have against a medicine. And while science was, of course, at the core of the event, Parvate was also able to appreciate how many different people she met. It amazed her that even though the participants of International Science Day were from all over, everyone spoke one common language – science.
“It was crazy comparing my experiences with their experiences and seeing how similar they were,” she says. “even though we’re from different places around the world.”
Not surprisingly, Parvate plans to continue her work in biology, hoping to one day focus on something specific, perhaps in the medical field. Her ambitions may be seen as rare, considering that U.S. statistics show young people’s interest in science careers has declined over the past five years. In fact, the firm First Choice recently conducted a survey of 1,000 kids and asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. Thirty-two percent said they wanted to be YouTubers, 18 percent aspire to be video bloggers and scientist didn’t even make the list.
“Lots of people say we’re the future,” Parvate says. “If more people get into science, then we can all live longer, fuller lives. A lot of our problems can be solved by the research.”
While some students may be intimidated of the work that comes with studying science, Parvate encourages kids to try it out anyway.
“The biggest thing I took away from State Science Day is overcoming problems,” she says. “There’s not always a clear path. If you don’t get the results you want, don’t stop – just try it a different way.”
About The Ohio Academy of Science
Every year The Ohio Academy of Science invites thousands of students across the state to complete independent research projects and show off their results to the scientific community. The competition celebrated its 71st anniversary this year, a notable feat for a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit organization.
The Academy is run by just two-and-a-half employees and only receives $4,000 per year from the state. Those employees work tirelessly to recruit volunteers, judges, mentors and sponsors to make State Science Day happen.
“In order to continue doing this for years to come, we need people to hear about us,” says Chief Executive Officer Mike Woytek.
The competition awards around $500,000 in scholarships, giving the students a chance to not only pursue STEM projects, but to possibly make it their future. Find out more about the Academy at www.ohiosci.org.
Mallory Arnold is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at marnold@cityscenecolumbus.com
