Fresh from a night with a record number of Science Research Project presentations, the class’s teacher, Carolyn Csongradi, is wrapping up her time at Paly and looking forward to a new beginning at Santa Clara University.

Csongradi is leaving Paly next year to join the faculty at Santa Clara University as University Supervisor for high school teachers and to teach a graduate course in science.

“I prefer to think I’m at last graduating from high school and going to college,” Csongradi said. “I will really miss Paly students. This course has been a lot of fun and certainly never a dull moment.”

Physics teacher Shawn Leonard will be taking over for Csongradi next year.

According to Science Research Project student Evan Gitterman, Csongradi has been extremely helpful.

“She had good connections and knows a lot about finding mentors,” Gitterman said. “It would be unfair to expect the same experienced connections from Leonard, but his main job would be helping students with resumés and find mentors and I think Leonard will be able to do a lot of that.”

Next year Leonard will have to face the growing enrollment of the course. According to Csongradi, “the course had 30 students this year, up from 19 students when she first took over. Forty-eight since people are enrolled for the coming school year.”

According to Csongradi, the types of projects were particularly varied this year.

“We had projects from the fields of psychology, archaeology, astrobiology, astrophysics, robotics, nanotech, field ecology, and several from medicine,” Csongradi said.

Junior Ashley Reese is working with juniors Ian Schubert and Janece Glaves on eradicating an invasive plant, Spartina Alternaflora. Reese has focused on reintroducing the native Spartina Foliosa plant after Spartina Alternafora has been eradicated. Reese also works on a second project, eHuman.

“I work on converting CT scans of hands and teeth to 2-D models,” Reese said.

According to Reese, the group has gathered important data regarding mud and water composition. Their next step is to outplant the seedlings they grew.

Senior Jess Brooks is working in a neurology lab using fruit flies as neural system models. According to Brooks, they will take a variation of a DNA sequence which is important for the expression of a certain gene, and put it into another species. This way, they will be able to determine whether the variations change anything or if they work the same way across the species.

“The polymerase chain reaction which multiplies copies of the gene isn’t working, so we’re stalled at step one,” Brooks said.

Brooks has loved being a part of Science Research Project.

“It’s very different to experience science as a new and broadening field, not a series of facts to be memorized and repeated,” Brooks said.

Student Research Project students enjoyed the class, but have several suggestions for how to change the class in coming years.

The only concern Brooks has about Science Research Project is that the course is a little repetitive.

“I’ve been working in the same lab for nearly two years now, and it gets really passé to leave seventh period, and be fluorescently staining brains thirty minutes later.”

According to Reese, another issue with the class is that it is extremely difficult to find a project. She suggests a contact list with mentors for the students to e-mail.

However, Brooks believes that there are labs out there in every field, if you look hard enough.”

Csongradi says one of the biggest challenges she faced as the program organizer was finding mentors for all students.

“Our mentor selection perhaps influences the nature of the projects, the size of the class, or the direction it takes more than anything else,” Csongradi said. “Our mentors, along with Paly students, are the greatest resource we have.”

The Science Research Project program is extremely different from other science classes. According to Csongradi, it is a virtual course. Instead of meeting as a class, the students and teacher communicated regularly through Facebook. SRP also requires a resumé, unlike most other courses.

Junior Science Research Project student Glaves said Csongradi is great at helping students find mentors, although she has only spoken to her a couple of times in person.

“She [Csongradi] keeps the students on task and is very motivating,” Glaves said.

Reese has also had a good experience with Science Research Project.

“It’s much better than a traditional science class,” Reese said. “You have so much more freedom and you can apply what you’ve learned in a ‘real life’ situation. There’s also a lot more freedom and flexibility with schedules.”

Brooks thinks that Science Research Project is not comparable to any class science project.

“It’s the difference between reading about swimming in a book, and actually swimming in real life,” Brooks said. “I can’t even consider them as remotely similar.”