For many De Soto students, Biology class is, or was, a block of terminology, textbooks, and in-class experiments. However, Pre-AP Biology students are given even more work on top of that; a year-long project that determines a fair portion of their final grade.

“[Students] have to do an independent research project,” Biology teacher Aaron Batterbee said. “They select it in the summer time and do some background research, something they can obtain and do without spending a ton of money, just so they can immerse themselves in science. It’s a good hands-on way to learn science.”

Batterbee explained why the science department sponsors the projects.

“I have [been doing these projects with the students] for six years. I came on board with helping Mr. Crisp out. He’s been doing it for quite a few years longer than I have,” Batterbee said. “With him and I, we both have similar backgrounds with research, so we wanted to make sure the kids could see how research works in a science classroom.”

Kevin Crisp, another Biology teacher at De Soto High School, has been doing these projects for ten years. He described what students have to do for their experiment.

“[Students] have to design their own experiment, set it up and carry it out, and do a full-fledged write-up, or manuscript, for their research project, and then actually do a presentation for the Kansas Junior Academy of Science,” Crisp said.

The Kansas Junior Academy of Science hosted the event at Johnson County Community College. Freshman and Pre-AP Biology student Maddie Merckling presented at the event with her classmates.

“We went to [JCCC] last weekend, and four people in my class got blue ribbons, which meant that they get to go on to state, and I was one of them,” Merckling said. “I felt like it was a good experience to get out there and present things to people who have expertise in that field of science.”

Merckling’s project was about the color’s effect on memory. She explained the procedure and one of the most difficult things about her science project.

“I was testing different colored pens and seeing if that would help with memorization,” Merckling said. “I had thirty participants, and they were just people from school. I had a list of twenty words, and they all had two minutes to memorize them, and then they had two minutes to write them down in their given colored pen. So I used red, blue and black pens for this. Definitely the biggest challenge was getting human authorization forms back in… I was having trouble getting them back, and getting thirty people to volunteer was also hard.”

Batterbee expects a couple things from the Pre-AP Biology students.

“I expect the students to learn that science isn’t something that’s really easy and something that’s simple to do,” Batterbee said. “There’s a lot of challenges that happen in science. There’s a lot of pitfalls. But when you get all done, you realize that there are many ways to do something, and it’s a very rewarding thing that you can work in, a lot of things you can learn from science.”

Merckling is anxious for one thing at the state competition.

“I’m a little nervous for the judges  [at state], if they will be harder than the ones I had before. I felt like the last judges were difficult,” Merckling said.

The Kansas Junior Academy of Science state competition is on May 4th in Wichita.