FINDING THE BEST TEMPERATURE TO PREPARE TEA LEAVES BY ABIGAIL CASTILLO

One of the four groups of presenters I got to interview were students: Sky, Ameerah, and Beatrix from the John D. Wells School in Brooklyn. The title of their presentation was “Tea Hydration Experiment” which focused on their experiment of growing chamomile tea in a hydroponic system before experimenting with a dehydrator to find out what temperature leads to the best results.

The team’s hypothesis was that the ideal drying temperature of chamomile tea leaves would be 115 degrees, whereas their experiment proved that the real ideal temperature is closer to 145 degrees. Through this experiment they also learned that making tea at home is easy and cheaper than buying it in a store.

After the presentation, the interviewers and I were allowed to ask 3-4 questions. My personal question was “Why did you choose tea as your experiment?” and they replied saying that tea in general comes from plants and that they wanted to experiment on different plants.

This experience taught me that precise record-keeping and collecting data from presentations are the backbone of any successful reporting. It showed me how to take complex scientific findings and communicate them effectively to a wide audience. Looking more ahead to college, although my goal is to major in a field like Criminal/Forensic Psychology and not working with plants, I can apply to my chosen field what I’ve learned from these students’ scientific rigor.