For four years Doddridge County Schools has collaborated with JASON Learning, a national curriculum and education company. Each year our Doddridge County High School JASON “Argonauts” have engaged in meaningful scientific work around the world. This year, Carter Lipscomb was selected to attend the Design Thinking, Innovation and Entrepreneurship expedition in Silicon Valley in California and Heidi Bee was selected to attend the Forensic Science and Public Health expedition in Washington, D.C
However, because of COVID, our Argonauts instead became citizen-scientists in their own back yard. Bee and Lipscomb spent the fall examining the behavior of crickets. Their hypothesis was that crickets in urban areas would have a higher sound output than in rural areas. They compared the sound level of cricket’s chirps at two locations in West Virginia, in Huntington and in Doddridge County. Although they determined that they could not conclusively prove their hypothesis; they became very engaged in their work.
“I found myself waking up extra early, around 5:30 AM just to collect data, I was super-excited to get out there and be part of this process” said Carter, a DCHS senior.
Heidi also learned from her work on the project. “At first I wasn’t a fan of bugs at all. It honestly took me a couple weeks to get used to studying insects. Now I am intrigued by the simple sighting of bugs and take pictures of them in order to learn more about the crawling creatures of Earth.”
7th grade Math teacher Walter Sias joined the students’ expedition as a teacher Argonaut. Sias said, “The 2020 JASON Argo experience was a more enriching experience than any of the Argonauts could have predicted. This year’s citizen science experience wasn’t the original plan, but Carter and Heidi took the changes in stride. These changes meant ten weeks of Zoom meetings and hours of coordinated experiment design, research, and analysis that culminated with a project presentation to their Argo peers, Jude Kesl and Patrick Shea from JASON Learning, entomologists and educators Kristie Reddick and Jessica Honaker or “The Bug Chicks”, and other invited guests.”
After graduation, Lipscomb looks to go into education as a career and wants to include scientific research in his work. He said, “I just want to help educate the younger generation and teach these important skills.”
Bee, a senior as well, plans on attending Liberty University to study occupational or physical therapy. She was impressed with the ten-week program, “They did a really good job putting everything together. It made me step outside my comfort zone and think outside the box.”
Both Argonauts were impressed with the close connections they created with other students in the program from across the country.
Sias was impressed both with the program and with Doddridge’s two student Argonauts, “I am proud of the work Heidi and Carter accomplished, and even more proud of the way they represented themselves, their families, and Doddridge County. This experience wasn’t what was planned, but it became so much more than anyone expected. Carter and Heidi are some of the pioneers of what hopefully becomes a permanent JASON Learning experience and a global citizen science project. I’m glad I was able to be a small part of that journey.”
Their and their fellow Argonauts’ presentations can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfLP-CqCNZQ Heidi and Carter are the second presenters.