10.21.07

Featured Student: Katherine Lownsbery

If you know a high school student who really loves exploring the world of science, email us why they should become our next Featured Student.
In My Own Words

It is past 11:00 pm and I am sitting on the living room couch, the textbook in my lap illuminated by a solitary light. Equipped with a pencil and my well-used graphing calculator, I log yet another late night in an attempt to solve my physics homework.

Why not just wait until class, where the teacher will explain the problem? Because I want to understand for myself. I want the satisfaction of knowing that I figured it out. After all, science is the process of discovery. Discovery isn't achieved when someone else tells me information; only after I have investigated for myself can science lead to fascinating insights.

Science surprises and amazes me at every turn. Whether it is the intricate complexities of a cell, the inner workings of an atom, the precise structure of a buckyball, or the revelation that energy and matter are intertwined, the study and application of science reveals the beauty of this world. That is what I love about science, that the whole universe is waiting to be discovered and understood. With only a present-day high school education, I possess more information than many historic scientists, and yet so much is left to learn that I, too, can contribute to the expanding knowledge.

Research is a demanding but rewarding process. I spent a semester working with punctured cellophane tape and polarized light, trying to discover a stress pattern. My goal was to present the research project at a science fair, but more importantly, I wanted the satisfaction of performing meaningful research. To begin, I referenced published papers, which indicated that I would mostly likely find a stress pattern. But none dealt specifically with my subject and consequently, I didn't know what I would find, or whether I would find anything. The uncertainty was both frightening and exciting because I was discovering something for myself, as well as for other people.

During my project, I learned more about the scientific process than about my subject, simply because I didn't know what to expect. One of the biggest obstacles was designing an experiment accurate enough to generate data. I had to cope with multiple questions, from how do I use a polarizing microscope, to how do I engineer an experimental setup, to how do I document my data, to what does the data mean, and is there an application. I had to learn to recognize useful data, decipher a pattern, and then interpret what the pattern meant. Yet the long hours were worth the effort, because I achieved a deeper understanding of science.

My goal is to understand and enjoy science, but I also want to focus on the practical application. I want to major in engineering, benefiting the world around me by combining scientific inquiry with solving real-world problems. For me, science is the amazing process of discovering beauty and structure in our world, and that is something I want to do for the rest of my life.

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