How Steadman Philippon Research Institute’s science club is inspiring the next generation of scientists
Through the Institute’s EPOC Science Club, local high schoolers explore research questions on injuries, pain, muscle stress and more
Steadman Philippon Research Institute/Courtesy Photo
The Steadman Philippon Research Institute created its EPOC Science Club 11 years ago to engage local students interested in science.
The institute’s Education and Public Outreach Committee, also known as EPOC, was the brainchild of Dr. Marc Philippon’s wife, Senenne Philippon, said Patricia McNamara, EPOC manager at Steadman Philippon Research Institute.
“EPOC’s mission is to really get out there into our valley to expose kids to STEM,” McNamara said. “We seek to inspire the next generation of scientists through STEM.”
EPOC currently has three tiers of programs, reaching students from fifth grade to high school. McNamara said that around 200 students have participated in the EPOC programming over the years.
The science club is designed for high school students — typically juniors and seniors — and kicks off each fall.
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The club is comprised of two-student research teams from Lake County High School, Vail Mountain School, Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, Battle Mountain High School, Vail Christian High School and Eagle Valley High School. The participants are selected by science teachers at their schools.
For the first semester, mentors from the SPRI team lead students through three small-scale projects that introduce students to the mechanics of scientific research. This year, students learned about bone fractures, muscle forces during walking and protein extraction and quantification of mouse cells.
Starting in January, students come up with their research questions and spend four months investigating and creating a final project. Each of the teams is assisted by SPRI mentors and their high school science teachers throughout their research.
Ultimately, the EPOC science club builds to April, when the high schoolers have an opportunity to present their research and findings to an audience of surgeons, fellows, scientists, peers and family members.
“It’s like a science fair on steroids,” described McNamara.
Students participating in the program’s 11th year presented the findings of their research projects on Wednesday, April 10. Two winning teams were selected by a panel of judges to have the opportunity to present their research at the Vail Scientific Summit, a clinical and scientific research symposium hosted by SPRI.
This year, the winners were Phedre Kempton and Ginger Reilly from Eagle Valley High School and Hunter Iverson and Jason Sherpa from Vail Mountain School.
Kempton and Reilly explored whether different types of footwear impact the risk of injury for female athletes. Specifically, the duo researched how the footwear put stress on athletes’ ankles and feet.
Iverson and Sherpa explored whether different amounts of non-opioid painkillers — acetaminophen and ibuprofen — affect the proliferation and osteogenic activity of MC3T3 cells. In other words, if those painkillers affect how quickly bone-forming cells multiply and develop into bone tissue.
A final winner will be announced at the Vail Scientific Summit in August.
The other student teams explored the following topics and research questions:
- Eva Croney-Ferraiuoli and Valentine Campos from Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy researched whether the use of magnesium and acetaminophen in a lab environment impacts peripheral pain sensitization pathways in a muscle injury model.
- Paulina Perotti and Molly Kessenich from Battle Mountain High School studied the effects of magnesium on c2c12 myoblasts, a type of muscle cell
- Maxine Lara and Evelyn Saucedo Cisneros from Lake County High School looked at how the ground reaction force between left and right feet compare in blocking and spiking during takeoff and landing in volleyball.
- Ian Salyer and Jasmine Dolcescu from Vail Christian High School looked at whether Quercetin or Resveratrol — both antioxidants — was more effective at reducing senescence in mouse chondrocytes.
For the students who participate, EPOC provides an opportunity to be exposed to real-world research and to what a career in STEM could be like. Over the years, McNamara said there have been endless success stories.
“To be in a program with EPOC, if you do a great job, you’re going to get a great level of reference. I truly believe it’s going to help you to get into your first, second, or third choices of colleges,” she said.
McNamara said they’ve seen program participants get into Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Emory University in Georgia, go on to have careers in medicine and science, and even return to work with SPRI and The Steadman Clinic.
However, the true power of EPOC and the science club is found within the programs’ mentorship.
“The strength of EPOC, the bone of the EPOC is mentorship,” McNamara said. “In the Science Club, each school had either two or three mentors. And that’s the beauty of it because you’ve got these high school students working with these mentors — some of them are trying to get into medical school, residency, some of them are full-time workers. And what they can glean from their expertise to make their presentations even stellar, it’s so hard to quantify.”
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“(The mentors) are just blown away by this. They’re in awe of the immense knowledge of our kids in the Vail Valley, by just how good some of these presentations are and by how many kids in the valley are into STEM,” McNamara added.
EPOC and its programs speak to the unique quality of the opportunities provided to all those who participate, she noted.
“Our valley, even though it’s small, is big, and there are so many wonderful things that students can do,” McNamara said.
