Ossining High School Senior Wins State Science Competition

Ossining High School senior Alexa Shaw placed first overall in the Upstate Junior Science and Humanities Symposium for her research on using virtual reality and exercise to reduce anxiety in adolescents.

Alexa won first overall in her category – behavioral science – and first among the top students in all categories. She will continue to the 59th annual National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium April 14-17, which is sponsored by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. She will be one of 245 high school students to take part in the virtual event.

Also at the Upstate Junior Science and Humanities Symposium March 10-11, Nicole Camillieri won first place for her poster on her research on salt pollution through tributaries of the lower Hudson Valley. She was one of three OHS science research students who finished third and fourth locally, giving them the opportunity to present their research at the state level.

Five students in the Science Research Program, including Alexa, won first and second place in the Westchester-Rockland JSHS and made 12-minute presentations at the Upstate JSHS.
In developing her project, Alexa paired her interest in reducing stress and anxiety with her passion for technology to see if it could help young people. “Personally, I suffer from anxiety and stress, just like any other teenager, so I wanted to be able to focus on an area to make that better,” she said.

Alexa said exercise is the best way for her to release her anxiety and stress. For her study, she paired exercise and virtual reality to determine whether the two combined could have a greater impact. She recruited 30 students to participate in a 10-minute virtual reality game of dodgeball or exercise alone. Dr. Anat Lubetzky, an assistant professor of physical therapy at New York University, loaned her a virtual reality headset for the research.

It was not too hard to find people willing to take part. “Once people heard ‘virtual reality headset,’ they were automatically in,” Alexa said.

“VR has the potential to encourage adolescents to exercise, promoting good physical and psychological health in the immediate term,” she and her mentor, Dr. Lubetzky, concluded in a nine-page paper they published last month in the journal “Frontiers in Virtual Reality.” Alexa is the first listed author, which is unusual for a student, said Angelo Piccirillo, who co-teaches the three-year OHS Science Research Program with Valerie Holmes.

The article found that virtual reality with exercise led to an immediate reduction in anxiety and stress.

Mr. Piccirillo described Alexa’s research project as “awesome” and “very creative.” Exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress, and research has found that virtual reality can be used as a technology to reduce stress.

“She merged the two and what is unique about it is her intervention is supposed to be something that can possibly be put into a school,” he said, adding there could be a designated room where students could go if they were, for example, stressed out about an upcoming exam.

Alexa said she never imagined doing so well in the state competition. “Winning first was amazing,” she said.

Dance is Alexa’s preferred method of releasing anxiety and stress. She has been dancing since she was 4 and does ballet, jazz, tap and modern. She is a member of the National Honor Society at OHS. Outside of school, she volunteers with the IFCA Housing Network, assisting with technology and graphic design.

Alexa plans to study computer science in college and work in that field or a related one. “Technology is always changing and always evolving, so there’s something new to be learned all the time,” she said.

Taking part in the Science Research Program has helped her communication and writing skills, and it is a supportive environment. “The best thing I like about it is it’s a safe place to grow,” she said. “It’s really a family.”

“Mr. Pic and Ms. Holmes are the best. They were there every step of the way helping us,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it by myself.”