Category: Tobi Akangbe

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Extracurricular Activities at The Gatton Academy

May 31, 2024 | Tobi Akangbe | No Comments

Students at the Gatton Academy involve themselves in various extracurricular activities that encompass their unique passions. If a student is passionate about a topic and cannot find a club to fulfill their passion, the student is welcome to start their own club with an adult supervisor. I am the co-president of Gatton Academy’s Medical Association and Women in STEM. I have been open to so many opportunities and have grown close relationships with my peers. I learned how to be a leader and to listen to others. I am very grateful for the opportunity I was given to participate in these activities.

Below is a list of a few of the extracurricular activities that students were involved in this year and what each club does.

Women in STEM

23-24 Leaders: Tobi Akangbe, Sarah Nath, and Ashlynn Linet

This club is for the young women at Gatton to form relationships with a mentor who helps them envision their future and set goals. Students have the opportunity to talk to female STEM role models who will show them the possibilities of careers, paths, and different interests.

Envirothon

23-24 Leader: Atiana Spivey

Envirothon is an environmentally-oriented competitive club. Students compete in teams of five at three levels: regional, state, and international. Each person is assigned to one category: wildlife, soil, aquatics, forestry, or current issues. The current issue is a topic that changes every year like this year’s is renewable energy and last year’s was climate change. Each category has specific requirements but most of them are based on identification (skulls, trees) or applied knowledge (soil horizons, stream orders). Gatton students have competed internationally for the past two years.

Bible study

23-24 Leaders: Melanie Stewart, Daniel Berry, and Livi Ray

Gatton Bible Study is a community of Christians at Gatton who come together twice weekly for a devotional, fellowship, and prayer. This is a space for Gatton students to unite on their walk with Christ.

GALE

23-24 Leader: Jocelyn Seadler

GALE is a community service club founded to support the educational development of youth in the Bowling Green Area. GALE does many activities such as tutoring, homework help, assistance with the local elementary school’s Math Scholars Program, and other educational activities and games at local youth service centers!

Create Circles

23-24 Leader: Maggie Rowton

Create Circles is a nonprofit focused on addressing older adult loneliness. Older adults are paired with trained student volunteers, and together they choose a project to work on that the older person is passionate about.

Students have the opportunity to do amazing things through these extracurricular activities. These activities help strengthen their resumes and meet other students with similar interests and develop new friendships.

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Gatton Research Profiles

January 5, 2024 | Tobi Akangbe | No Comments

One of the ways Gatton stands out from a typical high school is through the various research opportunities offered. Gatton encourages students to participate in research so they can explore their interests, create relationships with their faculty mentors, gain laboratory experience, and connect with peers in their field. Gatton allows students to participate in research in a wide variety of departments, through research internship grants (RIG), and do research at different schools.

Learn more below about some of the students who do research at Gatton and their projects.

Mara Neace
Research Department: Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This project involves collecting water samples from 11 sites in the Jennings Creek/Lost River watershed, testing samples in a lab to identify pollutants, and processing/analyzing historic and modern data to identify pollution trends over time. The goal is to develop a watershed management plan to address pollution on a site-by-site and widespread basis in a geographically vulnerable karst region.

Landon Carlton
Research Department: Biology Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This project explores the contributions of V-type ATPases in the wing development of Drosophila melanogaster (common fruit fly) using RNA interference in conjunction with the GAL4-UAS system to silence the genes responsible for V-type ATPases’ creation.

Daniel Berry
Research Department: Physics and Astronomy Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: Blazars are active galactic nuclei, black holes that spew out high energy gamma rays and other forms of radiation in the direction of Earth. As such, their magnitude (almost the same thing as brightness) greatly varies over time. We collect Blazar magnitude data (my Blazar is S5 0716+714) from the RCT and ZTF telescopes then compare that ground data to data from TESS, an orbiting telescope satellite. We modify magnitude measurements to match up on a plot to determine the calibration difference between ground telescopes and TESS. With magnitude data, research can go into determining more properties of the Blazar and the space around it.

Gracie Veith
Research Department: Chemistry Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This project focuses on creating polymer substrates that can act as substrates for photocatalysts. Photo catalysis is a method of water remediation and the porous polymer beads optimize the process of degradation. I specifically work with poly (methyl methacrylate) and poly glutamic acid.

Livi Ray
Research Department: Political Science Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This research is about dual partisanship which is the idea that a person can hold different political identities on different government levels.

Sara Nath
Research Department: Computer Science Department
Location of Research: Brown University
Information about research project: When doing research, I worked on developing machine learning models that can predict Alzheimer’s disease in single-cell datasets.

Vivianna Weaver
Research Department: Pathology and Lab Medicine Department
Location of Research: Brown University
Information about research project: I worked with Dr. Jessica Pavlick studying the effect of environmental toxins (specifically TCDD, a dioxin compound) on human neurological health using the zebrafish model. This research has been presented at the Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS) and will be presenting at the American Academy of Science in February.

Braeden Patrick
Research Department: Earth and Atmospheric Pressure Department
Location of Research: Indiana University – Bloomington
Information about research project: My research focused on processing and studying the metal concentration in plants harvested from Bismarck Mine in Montana.

Laurel Patterson
Research Department: Biomedical Engineering Department
Location of Research: Purdue University
Information about research project: : During my research, I created computational models to measure neurite outgrowth.

Students not only can conduct research but also can present their findings at research conferences. Each student’s research mentor typically assists in identifying suitable venues for presentations. Some of the primary conferences where students can showcase their work include the Kentucky Academy of Science, Posters at the Capital, and the WKU Student Scholar Showcase. Participating in undergraduate research is a wonderful opportunity for high school students. Gatton provides various opportunities through research to help students explore fields that they are interested in.

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