Most students at Lane don’t think daily about the dirt underneath their feet, but for Yairely Marchan and Alexander Czempinski, dirt is extremely important.
Both Czempinski and Marchan have been working hard alongside others these past few months to present their research at the Wild Things Conference in Rosemont, IL. Czempinski furthered his research on macroinvertebrate effects and Marchan investigated methods to help remove harmful plant chemicals.
Wild Things, the largest environmental conservation gathering in the Midwest, is meant to raise awareness and share information about environmental problems and solutions.
Amy Doll, the director of the conference, described Wild Things as a movement that has been going on for decades. Doll is a part of the Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves, and organizes all the moving parts of the event.
“It is very intentionally planned by and for that community of people, volunteers in nature preserves and for conservation organizations and natural areas, along with some professionals to celebrate and learn together for a full day, like a jam packed day of education,” Doll said.
The event went from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with student presentations around 5 p.m. The rest of the day was available to explore the multitude of presentations lining the halls, all created by decorated professors, environmentalists and people there to show off their interests.
Built in 1975, the Rosemont Convention Center held around 2,000 people for this conference. This space boasts immense rooms where boards, tables and chairs were set up under the warm light coming from the ornate chandelier light hanging from the ceiling.
“The energy of thousands of people coming together for a day just because they care about nature is really, really magical,” Doll said. Most of these people are graduate students or environmentalists early in their career. However, there were a few high schoolers and undergraduate students presenting, which made the accomplishment of being at the conference even more notable.
“To go into something and find a niche that nobody has explored before and present novel research as a high schooler, it’s an amazing feeling,” Czempinski said.
His jumping off point for discovering his niche was his junior year research that included taking soil samples from a Chicago forest preserve. These soil samples then set off an interesting phenomenon in Czempinski’s brain: that there was a beneficial relationship between the springtails (the little white particles you see in soil), ants and general biodiversity.
Czempinski’s senior year project furthered his research with springtails. He even went international, conducting research this past summer on Polish, American, German, and Swiss soils. These springtails, which previously were thought to be decomposers, were appearing in Czempinski’s research to be a keystone species. Keystone species have a much larger effect on the ecosystem than a decomposer.
After traveling internationally and gathering soil samples from different countries, Czempinski expanded on his research back in Chicago. He integrated springtails into an area of soil near Wisconsin and checked on it weekly.
“What was fascinating is that after adding just 10 springtails, the biodiversity in those two weeks had increased to a point that was well above what regular restoration reaches in over seven years,” Czempinski said. In summary, the integration of springtails showed how artificially introducing a native population can boost ecosystem biodiversity without needing a lot of extra resources. This was the bulk of his presentation.
Arthur Wawrzyczek, an AP Environmental Science teacher at Lane, or more commonly known as “Mr. W” by his students, has been working with the four students he selected to present at the conference for years.
“I specifically picked the kids who are doing research on Forest Preserve Districts and Forest Preserve District-like ecosystems. So that’s why they’re presenting, because what they learned is actually relevant to the conservation work we’re all doing,” Wawrzyczek said.
Czempinski has worked underneath Mr. W’s wing since his freshman year. However, his now robust passion for science started when he was in fourth grade. A PhD professor came to his middle school and performed a science vs. magic presentation, and Czempinski was hooked. As a freshman, he included his love of insects in a simple “Get to Know Me” presentation, and one of his teachers connected him with Mr. W. They’ve been working together ever since.
“There is no greater honor as a teacher than to see your kids then go on to succeed with the tools you equip them with,” Wawrzycek said. The tools ranged from microscopes some of the students had to bring home every night to the ability to interact with professors in an academically robust way.
“The great thing about being a Science Fair student here at Lane Tech and then having Mr. W is that it teaches you how to write effectively. And [the judges] liked it so much that I was able to explain this really complex idea of ecosystems and all that,” Czempinski said.
Before March 1, the day of the conference, the Lane environmental community prepared for this year’s debut. Marchan, a junior, expressed nervousness about presenting, but ultimately felt confident in her research.
“It kind of feels encouraging, since these people are like-minded, and they want to be able to put forth as much as themselves to help the environment, and that kind of motivates me to do the same,” Marchan said.
Marchan’s project this year included information she collected about invasive species and their allelopathy, which allows the species to overtake ecosystems. Allelopathy is an herbicide produced by most invasive species that allows them to be destructive to an environment.
She implemented two methods of stopping this chemical: bioremediation and physical chemical remediation. Bioremediation focuses on using organic compounds to break down the structure of the chemical. Physical chemical remediation, on the other hand, combines physical and chemical removal of the allele. Marchan focused on the affordability and accessibility of combining these methods. Her research proved to be unsuccessful.
Marchan found that her combination’s bacteria actually secreted chemicals that activated charcoal, which allowed the plant to then help itself.
“Carbon, by itself, was efficient in remediating the effects of this compound, meaning that it is a viable source in which farmers, people within their backyard, or basically, anybody would be able to obtain it and put it into their soil, and that would actually negate the effects,” Marchan said.
Both Czempinski and Marchan had successful presentations on Saturday, March 1, alongside juniors Payman Rajaie and Riley Coomer. All their boards were lined up next to each other, and their voices overlapped and blended together as they spoke.
“I know that within these fields, there’s also competition — I found this, I did this. But within a high school setting, we know that we’re here to support each other, and we share resources,” Marchan said.
For these students, this conference was a jumpstart for their college experience and even future careers, allowing them to share their own research while learning about others.
“I think that’s a true embodiment of the spirit of Wild Things, that we are all learners and we’re all teachers, and the students are an incredibly important part of that, not just coming to learn, but coming to teach as well,” Doll said.
Wawryzcek also spoke on the importance of the conference in current times.
“A lot of our students are concerned about what’s going to happen in the future, because they’re not dumb,” Mr. W said. “They see what’s happening around them. So the anxiety is there, which is why conferences like this and the research that our kids are doing, and why environmental education is so important. Literally we know what’s going on, we know how to fix it and here’s how you do it. And I guess it’s nice to be at least some part of the solution.”
