A budding scientist is raising eyebrows, not only in Northwestern Ontario, but all across Canada.
Red Lake High School student Erica Forsythe recently won a Silver medal at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Forsythe says the purpose of her project was to find out which plants in the Red Lake area have antimicrobial properties, to determine which plants can be used as antibiotics.
She says her testing found that two plants including Black Spruce Needle can both be used to fight off E-Coli.
The 15-year-old says the vast area of forest in our area inspired her project. “When (trees) are de-limbed and the needles/branches just fall on the ground, there’s not a really good use for them besides decomposing back into the earth. So, I figured if they could be used as a natural medicine, that would be wonderful and we wouldn’t have to put down any extra trees, so that would be a bonus too.”
Forsythe says she has a real interest in science and climate change, stressing it’s her generation that will be impacted.
“It’s our life. If we choose to do something about it. It’s our life that is going to be impacted, so I think that if we can just make an action plan to fix this climate change issue.”
Forsythe adds she would enjoy pursuing a career in microbiology to further expand her knowledge of bacteria.
For her findings and work at the national Science Fair, Forsythe received a $2,000 Entrance Scholarship.
She says she would to like to pursue a Post-Secondary opportunity in the field of Science.
The Balmertown teen also finished first at the Regional Science Fair four different times.
