SEQUIM — For a modern-day student like Heather Smith, it’s hard to imagine devoting countless hours and endless energy to a project, only to watch the credit for its success go to others.
That’s partly what drew Heather, an eighth-grader at Sequim Middle School, to target molecular biologist Rosalind Franklin as a subject for her required History Day project in Todd Beuke’s history class.
Franklin helped develop the science behind DNA, or ultra-precise genetic imprinting, in the 1950s.
But three male colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for the discovery.
That won’t happen to Heather, who is one of seven Sequim Middle School students headed to the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., in mid-June to compete in the prestigious National History Day contest.
Her paper on Franklin will stand or fall on its own.
“She was a huge part of discovering the ‘double helix’ of DNA, and no one has even heard of her,” Heather said of her research topic Monday while gathered at a library table with her six counterparts.
North Pole explorers
Few have likely heard of Matthew Henson either, said Olivia Boots and Megan Helwig, whose project is a group documentary on explorer Robert Peary.
Henson was an African American explorer who joined Robert Peary in the first successful trip to the North Pole.
Again, Peary got all of the credit.
“In those days they didn’t really acknowledge African Americans and their success,” Olivia said matter-of-factly, devoid of bitterness and appearing satisfied to merely correct the historical record.
Each of the students shared facts about his or her topics that took months of arduous digging to unearth.
The group has been through a lot together, bonding through travel and preparation in its projects which were put to the test at regional and state finals.
Reminiscent of a Breakfast Club with brainpower, Heather, fellow eighth-graders Sarah Roper, Erinn Helwig, Taylor Ackley and Whitney Macaulay and seventh-graders Boots and Helwig shared their excitement about the upcoming trip — and their raw passion for their incredibly sophisticated work.
“We look for something that drives our lives. This drives our lives,” Whitney said.
“It becomes you.”