Presentation

As a part of our initiative to spread awareness regarding both the importance of science and research, our team hosted three workshops through our collaboration with K-12 schools in Puerto Rico. In our workshops, we surveyed the impact of stress in our audience. Many of the kids talk about their own life stressors whether that be stress caused from school or real life stressors such as money and food. As a reminder, these are teenagers and some were elementary schoolers. To learn about their stories was very eye-opening for our team.

In our workshops, we demonstrated our project of using spit as a biomarker. We wanted to emphasize the mental health impacts of stress as well as the importance of identifying it early on as to avoid more serious effects in the future. Although we understand that stress is unavoidable for most people, we did share some commonly practiced stress-relievers such as breathing exercises and stretches. Our team talked about some personal techniques that we use to mitigate stress, some of us taking walks and others mentioning that listening to music helps as well.

Most importantly, we recognize that the students in Puerto Rico have a lot of potential. Many of them are aspiring doctors and biologists. Many students also have not had the opportunity to be exposed to science and technology within their communities because of a lack of resources. As such, it was very important for us to continue our partnership with the students.

The students who have demonstrated interest in collaborating with our team are now doing their own scientific workshops within their communities. Our team has fundraised money to donate ipads and different computer-science learning kits in order to support their learning within their communities.

Aftermath

After leaving Puerto Rico, EmpireSpit maintained our partnership with many of the Puerto Rican students. Some of our computational subteam was able to create a coding club, guiding interested students through the process of creating programs and website design, while members of our biology subteam were able to create a mini-biology course, teaching kids about basic molecular structures, proteins, and aptamers.

New York High Schools

To guide our peers on their own stress levels, and our project, a number of our teammates hosted lectures at their schools. We shared our website with them, giving them a brief overview of our project, outreach, wet-lab work, and engineering. At multiple specialized New York high schools, EmpireSpit members discussed the aspiration and motives behind the saliva test product, and why these changes are necessary. The students who attended the presentations were within our own age groups, who experience the same environmental stressors as we do. This was a significant outlet for our research because students make up a large portion of the population that experiences stress on a daily basis.

During each presentation, members of the audience were asked about their own levels of stress to contribute to our ongoing investigation. The overall answers concluded that stress was a regular occurrence day to day for the students. The presentations also focused on the intent of our project: finding an efficient and affordable mechanism to detect acute stress. The focus on acute stress stems from the belief that there exists a causative relation between acute stress and chronic stress and its potential effects on extreme mental health disorders.

Shin Kwang Church

EmpireSpit biology captain Heewon Choi had the opportunity to share our project with Shin Kwang Church, one of the biggest Korean churches in New York City. Shin Kwang is a reformist church that serves around 8,000 attendees every Sunday, and hosts Friday worship nights for the youth group ministry. Heewon went to Shin Kwang Church to present our project to the church’s youth group ministry after Sunday service ended. Many of the students were either in junior high school or high school, and a majority of them were students attending rigorous, high-stress high schools such as Stuyvesant and Townshend Harris. Prior to the presentation, Heewon asked the students if they had any knowledge on salivary biomarkers and their relationship to stress. All of them confirmed that they did not have any previous knowledge on our topic of study.

During his presentation, Heewon asked the students at service how often they were stressed, and the majority indicated that stress was just a normal part of their lives. After inquiring about the students’ personal experiences, he rerouted discussion to the focus of our research project: finding a fast and cost-effective way to detect acute stress. Heewon then discussed why exactly EmpireSpit chose to focus on acute stress identification by explaining the causative relation between acute stress and chronic stress and their potential manifestations as more extreme mental health disorders. Heewon concluded the presentation by asking how likely the students would buy the AptaStress test kids that EmpireSpit proposed, and most of the audience responded with either “likely” or “very likely”, indicating the relevance of AptaStress in improving youth mental health.

Washington Square Park

Several members of EmpireSpit’s Education team -- Hwarin, Christina, and Damini -- went to Washington Square Park in Manhattan to interview passersby on their stress levels and knowledge of the nature of stress. They were sure to interview a wide variety of people of different backgrounds and ages, to get a better idea of what the general population experienced and knew while ensuring they could identify trends of demographics.

First, the Education members asked people how familiar they were with over-the-counter PCR kits, the same kind of kit many would’ve used when testing themselves for COVID-19. We wanted to gauge how easy that style of test would be for people to use, and then compare public opinion with that on ELISA tests and blood draws.

Finally, we wanted to teach people about the benefits of using a stress detector kit in the first place, and did so by asking them what they found the potential benefits to be. This was constructive because it not only gave us useful feedback on people’s perceptions on mental health, but also because it made people think and consider their own mental health and ways that they could themselves monitor it further.

Google Form

Our Google Form stress questionnaire served as a valuable tool for individuals to gain insights into their stress levels and understand the potential sources of stress in their lives. The first question, "How often do you experience stress in a typical week?" provides respondents with an opportunity to reflect on the frequency of stressors they encounter. This information can help individuals recognize patterns and make informed decisions about managing stress. By using a scale from 1 to 10 to rate their overall stress level, respondents can pinpoint the intensity of their stress, allowing for a more nuanced assessment of their mental well-being.

65% of the survey takers were of ages 16-18 at the time of filling out the questions, and 28.1% were of ages 14-16. Teenagers are highly susceptible to stress. 86.9% of the survey takers disclosed that their current occupation is high school student. This ended up being our predominant sample, due to opportunity-based sampling, given that we had more access to encouraging these demographics to take the survey.

The results of the survey strongly supported the hypothesis that the majority of the population experiences stress on a frequent basis. 47.5% of the respondents specified that they undergo symptoms of stress daily, meanwhile an additional 40% shared that they experience stress several times a week. These overwhelming statistics are coupled with the survey portion asking participants to rank their stress from 1 being “not stressed at all” and 10 being “extremely stressed”. The majority of respondents selected rankings 7 and 8, at 19.4% and 19.4% of the respondents for both rankings. Overall, approximately 75% of respondents selected rankings of 6 and higher. This supports the clear demand for our product, and proves that society, particularly high school students can greatly benefit from a product detecting their stress levels.

Additionally, the questionnaire delves into respondents' familiarity with over-the-counter PCR kits and stress detection methods such as blood draws or ELISA tests for cortisol. This information can be crucial for healthcare professionals and researchers looking to understand the relationship between stress and physical health. By collecting data on the use of stress detection tools, it becomes possible to explore the effectiveness of such methods in helping individuals monitor and manage their stress levels.

The questionnaire prompts respondents to consider the potential benefits of using a stress detector kit. This encourages individuals to think about how gaining insights into their stress hormone levels could improve their overall well-being. Approximately 53% of the respondents shared that they would be likely to purchase a saliva stress detector kit, given that the product is effective. Only Stress detector kits can empower individuals to take proactive steps towards stress management and may even lead to early intervention for stress-related health issues, ultimately promoting better mental and physical health outcomes. The Google Form stress questionnaire can contribute to a greater understanding of stress in individuals' lives and the potential benefits of stress detection methods.