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Save The Dates 
Two Ohio PLTW students’ real world internship in biodiesel yields them “Best in Show” and publication in scientific journal
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Ryan and Justin accept "Best in Show" at the Akron Public Schools Science Expo for their work in biodiesel fuel. |
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Firestone High School students Justin Perry and Ryan Brosnahan "on the job" in the lab at Akron University this past summer.
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Following their success, Akron University to support two additional student internships this summer
Ohio PLTW students Ryan Brosnahan and Justin Perry may just have made our future a bit less oil-dependent this past summer during their stint as interns at Akron University. Their laboratory research on new ways of turning vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel yielded practical, usable results more like those that engineers in the field might achieve.
Ryan and Justin, both juniors in Dan Spak’s PLTW class at Akron Firestone High School, were hand-picked by Mr. Spak to intern in the lab for ten weeks last summer. They worked under the supervision of Dr. Ping Wang, spending some time learning how to conduct experiments and use the lab’s equipment, and from then on, essentially doing their own research into how to best utilize biodiesel.
“There has been a lot of research into using vegetable oil to make biodiesel,” said Ryan. “But ours was different because we worked on finding ways to make (the enzyme) lipase soluble so it could be used as a catalyst.”
Ryan and Justin both loved the exposure they got to the laboratory setting. “We really learned a lot about engineering and chemistry,” Justin said. “We really enjoyed it—it was great to be able to do more complicated experiments and not be so limited on time and equipment.”
The PLTW students have already had some positive results from their summer’s work—not only will their work soon be published in a scientific journal—normally reserved for grad students and above—but they also placed “Best in Show” at a recent science expo at Akron U. “We got a lot of positive attention,” Ryan said. “This will be our trump card to get into the colleges we want.”
The colleges they want include Stanford or someplace equally “far away” for Ryan, and either Carnegie Mellon or MIT for Justin. What will they study? Neither is sure; Justin is leaning toward mechanical or aeronautical engineering, Ryan either computer engineering or “. . .maybe chemical. . .all of them seem attractive.”
In the interim, both students will return to the lab this summer for more work in a field of their own choosing. Dr. Pang was so pleased with their work last summer that he has not only asked them to return, but has requested Mr. Spak to send two more students to his lab this summer.
Both students also credit Mr. Spak’s Project Lead the Way class with allowing them to get a taste of the “real world” of the engineering field. “Before Mr. Spak’s class, I didn’t have a good idea of what an engineer does,” said Justin. “The best thing is that now we know what engineering is, and how we might use it.”
“It also feels really good that we accomplished something.”
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