WMC AP Biology Class Turns Moldy Trees into a National Publication

Credit: Long Valley Patch

Credit: Long Valley Patch

Erica Porta, Editor in Chief

Christmas trees and mold; not the best combination of words to hear around the holiday season. To Mrs. Gizas’ AP Biology class, however, these were key elements to their season-long experiment on the “Christmas Tree Phenomenon.” Operating with a $5,000 BASF grant, each student in the class took home a live tree for observation this past holiday season to examine the impact of the trees on respiratory afflictions and allergies.

The “Phenomenon” they were testing for was to measure the potential effects of allergens and mold introduced to a household through the Christmas trees on inhabitants. They ran the experiment by placing agar plates next to the trees to collect any mold, allergen, or dust spores that came off the tree, both live and artificial, after collecting data on the spores already present in each house; once this data was collected after the season, the class also examined the effect of the trees on individuals in the households themselves.

The results seemed fairly conclusive: while only 8% of students reported having individuals with respiratory issues before the experiment and introduction of the trees, afterwards 42% indicated that someone in their homes had experienced a respiratory event or difficulty.

Despite these wheezing inconveniences, students in the class and their families were excited about the experiment.

Senior, Brian Wagner and family saw the experiment with particular personal interest: “My family was pretty interested. My mom was a nurse for a long time so any kind of experiment that has to do with the health of individuals always interests her. My extended family all have a wide array of allergies to mold as well as asthma so this lab became something my mom would ask me about regularly.”

Classmate Danielle Rivers corroborated this familial support of the experiment, explaining that families were often interested and supportive even when they chose not to put up trees. “There was an option of not having trees and those who didn’t have a tree up, for whatever reason,” Rivers commented, “they were used as a control group. I feel as if a lot of families were pretty supportive for our experiment and were actually pretty curious themselves.”

The experiment and results were highly rewarding to the class as a whole as well. The students found their data not only more reliable than they expected, but also were published along with an article about the experiment in the National Journal of High School Science this year.

Students also saw this as an opportunity to explore their perspective career fields further and get a head start in their fields, as Rivers stated: “I feel for a lot of us that this experience was a great head start into our future career paths. Almost everyone in our class is going into some sort of biological field. So to do such a hands on experiment and get great data from it, it really benefits us.”

Wagner held a similar view of the opportunity presented by the experiment and publication as a chance to really not only explore, but experience a field he is passionate about. “As of now, I am heading to the University of Dayton as a Biology major and this class was important in maintaining that interest. The BSAF grant and the experience that it gave me and the class overall was a huge look into how lab research is conducted and it really set up an environment that we all had not really experienced before. It was challenging and interesting so it really held true to the ideals of what Biology is, a challenging subject that is always pushing forward and discovering new things about ourselves and about life.”

So what’s next for WMC’s coming scientists in next year’s class? When asked, Wagner said he “hope[s] that they might do something with lab animals such as mice or rats. Working with lab animals is an incredibly interesting topic and is something I think anyone with an interest in Biology looks forward too…They should look to push the button a little bit and really explore the concepts that Mrs. Gizas will teach them.”

Rivers sees expanding on the experiment as a possibility to future experimenters: “I feel like taking our experiment this year and having a future class expand more into it would be cool–I mean find out the types of molds [in] the plates.”

Overall, this class and their dedication to the experiment have set a high standard for students to come next year and in following years to “push the button” and take the opportunity of future BASF grants.