Dirty laundry takes Rampart teen to competition > School News > Stories > Briargate

YourHub.com \\ Briargate \\ Stories \\ Education \\ School News

Dirty laundry takes Rampart teen to competition

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

Contributed by: Gina Grate on 10/18/2006

While many teenagers consider laundry a chore, Aarthi Shankar's dirty clothes have earned her a free trip to Washington, D.C.

The 14-year-old spent four months last school year studying the bacteria in laundry and finding out how to kill it using natural products instead of bleach.

Her eighth-grade science project for Mountain Ridge Middle School's science fair garnered national top 40 placement in the 2006 Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.

The honor includes a free trip from Saturday to Oct. 25 to compete against the country's best science students for more than $35,000 in scholarships and a chance to be seen on the Discovery Channel.

Shankar is one of two students representing Colorado; the other is Radhika Rawat, of Boulder.

Now a Rampart High School freshman, the Briargate resident got her project idea while reading a magazine article at the dentist's office.

The article detailed a study showing clean laundry still carried E. coli and salmonella, among other bacteria, and thousands of people a year become sick from handling laundry.

The study concluded that bleach kills most of the bacteria when it's added to the wash.

But Shankar can't use bleach because she mixes her whites and colors together whenever she washes her clothes.

So she studied other natural things she could add to laundry to kill the bacteria, without affecting clothing colors.

First, she tested her own laundry to see which bacteria it might be carrying and found six different kinds.

She allowed the bacteria to grow in agar plates, then tested six natural agents on the bacteria: grapefruit seed extract, tea tree oil, extract from neem - a tree that grows in southern India, olive leaf extract and apple cider vinegar.

"Out of those, I found out which one was the most effective - tea tree oil and apple cider vinegar," Shankar said. "I'm still working on what concentration I should put in the laundry to make it effective."

She's doing that part for her own curiosity since her project stopped with learning which two agents were most effective on bacteria.

Although she was confident about her project, she didn't think she'd be chosen as a national finalist.

"They called me in the morning and told me I was a finalist. I was extremely thrilled - it didn't process at that moment until a few minutes later," she said.

"She was shaking," her mom, May, added.

A microbiology fan, Shankar developed her knowledge of the field through her project and is considering a career in microbiology.

During her research, she spent three to four afternoons a week in the Colorado College lab and reading books and Internet studies when she hit dead ends.

"I think it's so fascinating how bacteria grows and multiplies, and I love dealing with bacteria," she said.

"She was very persistent," May said. "She learned so many procedures and lab techniques. I think her passion for microbiology has grown."

Shankar is excited her parents and her brother, Rahul, 12, will accompany her to Washington, D.C. Rahul, who made it to the semifinal stage with his science project, will achieve his dream of touring the nation's capital through his sister's accomplishment.

Winners will be announced Oct. 25. For more information, visit www.discovery. com.

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Current Rating

Based on 1 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.