STEAM Internship Spotlight: Lewis Acid Catalysis
Maya Albright, Jared Gonder, Madylin Sherman (all from Midland High School), Kaedon Cleland-Host (Dow High School), Samuel Layher (Great Lakes Bay Early College) and Sarah Syeda (Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy) and their mentor, Dr. Jack Kruper have been working on two projects this summer: using Lewis acids for novel refrigerants and assisting in the intermediate step when synthesizing an antimicrobial (Zyvox)….
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Gas Cylinder Tracking and Dashboard
The Gas Cylinder Tracking System Group, including students; Joey Griffin, Sarah Menzl (both from Dow High School), Olivia Zielke (Frankenmuth High School), Phil Spannagel (Hemlock High School), Gabe Proprave, and Noah Adamick (both from Midland High School) have constructed a web application that will allow MSU employees to check gas cylinders in and out of labs using their smartphones. Each cylinder and…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Organic Battery
Isabel Chaput and Kathryn Altes (both Dow High School), Jacob Berry (Western High School), Hanna Haque (Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy), and Dominik Servinski (Midland High School), are working in conjunction with their mentor, Dr. Adina Dumitrascu, to investigate ways in which to improve the safety of lithium ion batteries and to create new, more robust, cheaper and less toxic active compounds…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Professional Writing
Students from the Writing Group add the “A” into STEAM on the St. Andrews campus with a new collaboration between Creative 360 of Midland, MI, and MSU. Students including; Madeline Champagne (Nouvel Catholic Central High School), Emily Coston (Midland Christian School), Brooke Duley (Freeland High School), Shane Hogan and Meghan Killmaster (both from Dow High School), and Kyla Richardson and Jahdiel Wingard…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Hive Tool
The honeybees have another ally on the MSU-St. Andrews campus; the Hive Tool Group. This group has focused on testing and calibrating sensors which will be placed inside St. Andrews’ beehives. These sensors will monitor the hive temperature, humidity, and weight. However, students are also evaluating ways in which to keep the sensors free of wax and comb which could potentially cause…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Automated Gaming
The automated game opponent group, including students; David Lin, Amelia Mylvaganam, Sreya Manchiraju, Nathaniel Kalantar (all from Dow High School), Sid Somasi (Carmel High School), and Elliot Moore (Midland High School), studied Python for three weeks and then sought to design an automated opponent that can play a board game against a human player. The strategy game that they are analyzing has…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Water Purification
Reema Patel, Emma Allington (both from Dow High School), and Gage Slominski (Hemlock High School) have been collaborating with their mentor, Dr. Daniel Henton, to remove fluoride from water without the use of electricity. The purification process involves an ion exchange resin where ionized groups are attached to a polymer backbone. This resin provides sites, which can bind various positive ions that…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Hydrolysis
Kaily Metz and Rebecca Kowalczyk (both from Dow High School) have been conducting research on polyethyloxazoline and polyethylenimine (PEI) polymers in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the formation of the PEI product, which is used for gene transfection. Rebecca and Kaily are creating the PEI product through the process of hydrolysis and have spent considerable time examining the characteristics of…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: Bees & Miticide
St. Andrews campus is buzzing with excitement as Rebecca Henning (Midland High School), Jacqueline Laurin (Dow High School), and Trenton Mclean (Bay City Western High School) conduct research on a polymer-based miticide, which could help beekeepers with Varroa mite problems in hives across the United States. These interns have been investigating the effect of environmental conditions including humidity, temperature, and surface area…
STEAM Internship Spotlight: 3D Printing and Sensors
Stephen Gillman (Midland High School) is working on creating a 3D printed product that combines the properties of strength and malleability. Stephen’s experiments focus on the blend of graphene in the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS filament) and the manipulation of the 3D printer settings to optimize the resulting product. Noah Smith (Freeland High School) and Sam Shepich (Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy)…
