Beyond the Science Club

Allison is a high school student who worked in a neurobiology lab one summer with the intention of submitting her project to a science competition. Allison decided on her own to work on a learning experiment involving mice, despite the fact that her supervising professor had warned her that projects based on neurology and behavior of “live” animals do not seem to capture the fancy of the judges. Allison maintains strong values about the ways in which scientists should work. However, knowing that she was unlikely to win the Intel competition because she worked directly with animals, Allison decided to hide the truth in her research paper. Allison phrased her paper carefully to make it seem as though she had not actually handled the mice directly. In the end, Allison was named a semifinalist and won a college scholarship worth $2,000. She was accepted to college, where she has chosen to pursue scientific research.

For those who take part in the Intel Science Talent Search in high school science, intense competition is a reality. These high school students want everything that Intel has to offer: the recognition, the money, the elite status, the social networks, and the personal satisfaction. For many, the competition is fierce—so much is at stake—and the students’ standards of honesty and accuracy prove vulnerable.

Allison has always enjoyed science more than any other subject. In high school, during the second semester of her sophomore year, she enrolled in a research program that connected students with local research institutions to help them conduct projects for the Intel competitions. Allison was introduced to a well-known professor at a major university in New York City, who immediately invited her to work in her neurobiology lab.

At their first meeting, the professor offered Allison a number of different projects on which she could work. This was an unusual and fortunate circumstance, since high school students are normally assigned to whatever projects need help. Allison decided on her own to work on a learning experiment involving mice. This was not an easy choice, for two reasons: she does not like handling animals (especially mice); and, more importantly, the professor warned her that projects based on neurology and behavior of “live” animals do not seem to capture the fancy of the Intel judges. This advice did not deter Allison, however; over the years, the Intel competitions have been characterized by inconsistent judging.

During the summer between her junior and senior years in high school, while working at the lab, Allison received additional training through scientific reading and writing workshops. Like many high school students, Allison had a hard time balancing her social life with her academic obligations and her commitment to her position in the lab. She often stayed up until two in the morning to finish her homework, and met her friends at the lab when she had a break. “It was hard work sometimes, but I think it was worth it,” she says.

Allison maintains strong values about the ways in which scientists should work. She believes in honesty—in not fabricating data, not stealing data, and not taking credit for work that is not one’s own. She is aware that not all scientists honor these standards. In her opinion, appropriate punishment would be “public humiliation … I think that just goes against the way the scientific field should work, and I guess they’d be blacklisted if they worked like that.” Allison also feels responsibility to the domain of science: she believes that the purpose of experiments is to build knowledge for the field. She talks about the importance of honest reporting: “If you lie in the course of an experiment, or if you take information from other scientists, the stuff that can happen—you really see the effects and it’s hard to tell a little white lie when you’re doing a big experiment, because you’re affecting data.”

But there is another side to Allison: her fierce desire to win a competition—for herself, for the personal recognition, and for the scholarship money. She enjoys the competition inherent in Intel and thinks of it as an athletic event. She speaks admiringly of The Double Helix, a book that chronicles the intense competition for the discovery of the structure of DNA and suggests that scientific ends may justify unethical means.

This tension between what Allison wanted (and felt she deserved) for herself and the standards she holds for scientific work became palpable when she faced the decision about how to write her research paper for the Intel competition. Knowing that she was unlikely to win because she worked directly with animals, Allison decided to hide the truth:

“I had to phrase my paper really particularly so it didn’t look like I was actually touching the animals and stuff like that. I had to say that I had watched videos.

I didn’t think it was fair that I couldn’t get rewarded for my work because I worked with animals … That just made me mad, so I didn’t care … Maybe it was lying in a way, but I didn’t think that it was wrong, because I deserved to be rewarded … I did the work—it wasn’t that someone else did it. It was my work, and I did record it. I did make videos and stuff like that, but I thought that it was fair because I think that I deserved the recognition that other people did that worked just as hard, if not less, than I did.”

In the end, Allison was named a semifinalist and won a college scholarship worth two thousand dollars. It is unclear whether her professor in the lab or her teachers at school know that she withheld important information in her final research report. It is clear that she does not feel remorse about what she has done, nor does she feel that she should be “blacklisted” from the scientific community. Allison has since been accepted to her top-choice university, where she has chosen to pursue scientific research. Her professional goal is to conduct research in molecular or cell biology and teach at the graduate level.

Allison doesn’t feel remorse for her actions. Do you think her values were in conflict with her actions? Why or why not?