Southwest Senior Wins Science Award

Ryan Heltemes is a normal Southwest Minneapolis high schooler—he plays ultimate frisbee, and soccer and will be attending St Olaf college next fall. 

The Southwest High School student might also be the district's leading authority on bioluminescent dinoflagellates, tiny oceanic creatures that give off an eerie green light when disturbed. Last week, Heltemes won a Young Naturalist award from the American Museum of Natural History for his study examining the impact of bug spray-covered tourists on the microorganisms. The study, he said, was inspired by a recent family vacation.

"My family went down to Puerto Rico on vacation, and we went kayaking at night in one of the three bays" where the organisms live in high concentrations, explained Heltemes. 

"When the dinoflagellates are disturbed, they give off this blueish or yellow light, and as the water swirls, the glow swirls with it," Heltemes said. "We started kayaking around the bay at dusk, and as it got darker and darker, the light [from the dinoflagellates] got brighter and brighter…the water glows all around your kayak as it moves." 

"It looked amazing," he said, but tour guides wouldn't let them swim in the water, because of the bug spray many tourists were wearing.

 The problem, he found in a series of tests conducted this past December, is that DEET in the bug spray killed off substantial numbers of the little creatures, substantially reducing the glow produced by disturbing the water. If that happened in any of these bays, it would be a sure-fire tourism killer.

Linda Wiard-Bauer, Heltemes' advisor and former biology teacher, said she was very pleased with his success.  

"I thought it was great, I thought it was amazing," she said. "He came up with everything, he got all the resources together."

Christine Economos, the Young Naturalist Award program manager at the American Museum of Natural History, said the award's judging process is rigorous, and involves judging by working scientists. 

"There are 25 judges who choose eight finalists per grade. Their essays then go to the scientific community [for further review]," she said. "We look at the scientific process - the background research, how the student formulated their hypothesis, then the plans for their experiment that would support or reject the hypothesis."

Economos said that the 12 winners are awarded cash prizes and a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum, including meetings with research scientists working at the museum.

While his experiment was a lot of work, Heltemes said that he did not have blow off schoolwork to complete the project.

 "I did a lot of work over winter break," he said with a laugh. "What I blew off was a lot of sleeping and hanging around with friends."

"I would definitely say," he added, "Ms. Wiard-Bauer is a phenomenal teacher. She's the reason I'm interested in biology."

Heltemes said he plans to pursue a career in medicine.