School's Science Lab Extends Learning Opportunities

Walk into Dr. Sophia Gershman's science lab at Watchung Hills Regional High school in Warren and at first glance, it appears to be a typical classroom. Then one notices a cluster of students draining a vacuum pump while another group is huddled around laptops, searching online for parts for their project. Step into the adjoining room and there is a large metal apparatus that looks like it could be part of a car engine being scrutinized by two more students.

As Dr. Gershman attends to the different teams she notes that most of what you see would not be found in the average high school science lab, things like a "Dusty Plasma Chambered," discarded by Princeton Plasma Physics Lab at Princeton University, or the bacterial containment chamber the students made.

In fact, she said she wasn't aware of any other New Jersey high school with such an extensive array of equipment for a variety of scientific disciplines. The only school that came close, she said, was Bergen County Academies, which focuses on microbiology.

Having this equipment enables the students to conduct their experiments at the school  instead of being sent to local research facilities as many schools do, said Dr. Gershman, who has been collecting research-grade equipment since coming to Watchung Hills in 1997.  Grant money, including $4,000 received from the Department of Energy last year, has assisted with the purchase of some equipment while partnerships with several companies have facilitated long-term loans of other items.

Even with the equipment, the students construct most of the components of their experiments themselves, providing project management skills.

The students, all juniors and seniors except for one sophomore, have been working on 15 projects in a variety of fields including biology, astro-physics and plasma applications. Twelve of those experiments were recently part of the North Jersey Regional Science Fair in mid-March and earned the school several awards. These projects are still in progress and while the goal is to finish by the end of the school year, they are sometimes resumed the following year by returning students.

""We try to make sure that the students' interest is what drives the projects," said Dr. Gershman. "The lessons learned do not diminish whether or not the project is complete."

The metal contraption being studied by Senior Ed Li and Junior Michael Ma was part of their project to attempt to eliminate the dust that is created when plasma is formed in different processes including fusion. Dust is a contaminant requiring clean up that can be expensive and time consuming.

"It has more impact than you think," said Ma.

A few steps away, seniors Brittany MacTaggart and Monique Baumont proudly displayed some jars with what looked like small grains of brown rice floating in water. They were worms that were part of their research into cell regeneration and how it could be affected. If a worm is cut into two pieces, both parts will regenerate.

"It's definitely interesting to see," said Baumont. "How do they know when to stop?"

Answering that question could be used in the medical field, including cancer research. If the cell growth of a worm could be halted, then perhaps cancer cells could be prevented from dividing and growing, she said.

However, these worms are more than just an experiment, they seem like pampered pets living in bottled water, which seemed to be their preferred environment.

"They're very fancy. Only the best," said  MacTaggart.

One worm was even nicknamed Knives Chau after a character in the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -until he was divided. Then one half became Knives and the other Chau.

Like the lab, Dr. Gershman is unique. Her resume is extensive and impressive, including a Ph.D. in Experimental Plasma Physics, a Master of Science in Solid State Physics and Physics Teaching and several published papers. In addition to her work at the school, her April plans include presenting a paper at the International Workshop on Micro Plasmas in Paris, France and then a stop in Washington, DC to meet with representatives from China as part of the US-China Experts Meeting on Science Education.

But she quickly changes the focus back to her students and she doesn't miss an opportunity to teach. When one student was pretending to test the electrical charge of her classmate with a volt meter, Dr. Gershman challenged them to explain why one person could generate a higher electrical charge than someone else.

The group, initially distracted by some harmless fooling around, was stumped until a student from another station provided a satisfactory answer. His gloating was short-lived because it was back to work for all of them.