As Ellie Pagan, junior, walks into the prep room, she’s greeted by an unusual sound: squeaking.

Pagan is using mice to research the role of anxiety in gut bacteria makeup in her Authentic Science Research (ASR) 2 class.

“I’m examining the relationship between anxiety fluctuations and your overall gut microbiome,” Pagan said.

Pagan chose mice for her research because stool is an easy way to examine gut bacteria. It’s also easy to fluctuate the living environment of mice, Pagan said.

Every week for four weeks, Pagan will change the mice’s exercise, social stimulation and auditory stimulation to fluctuate their anxiety. She takes stool samples at the beginning of each week to see if anything has changed in the bacterial makeup of their gut.

Specifically, Pagan is examining the bacteria that influence the production of GABA and glutamate, the main neurotransmitters that impact anxiety. If there is no change in production, the stimulus tested does not influence anxiety.

Pagan has six male mice living in two tanks. The mice were from a pet store and now live in the prep room.

One mouse, Felipe, was bigger than the others and bit the ear of another mouse. Pagan had to swap him out at the pet store for a different mouse.

Coming back from Thanksgiving break, Ralph was found dead.

Pagan said she’s not sure which mice killed him, but having one less mouse will skew part of her research.

“I can’t run correlations with social interaction now because I only have one sample for that part of the project,” Pagan said. “It creates more bias.”

Despite the setback, having the freedom to pursue an independent research project is something Pagan said she appreciates about ASR 2.

“I was really interested in anxiety research and microbiology, so combining those two in this project is kind of cool for me,” Pagan said.

Although ASR 2 is mainly independent, students will sometimes help each other. 

“Whenever we have a big day of work or a lot of stuff to do, somebody will chip in,” Pagan said.

Teju Tadi, junior, sometimes helps Pagan take care of the mice. Tadi’s own project research focuses on testing different plant growth regulators with mint.

“I’m testing to see how they affect crop growth, and then based on that, how that impacts food security in the context of developing communities,” Tadi said.

Tadi appreciates the environment that ASR 2 provides.

“Just the ability to research something and take the initiative to lead on it is cool,” Tadi said.

Dr. Cathy Farrar, ASR teacher, said students read about areas they are interested in, identify a project they want to pursue and then write a research proposal.

“The whole goal of it is to get kids to engage in independent research,” Dr. Farrar said.

Proposals are submitted at the end of September and given the final approval at the district office level by October.

Dr. Farrar reads every proposal, along with another science teacher. Depending on what a student wants to do, experts may also review the proposal, Dr. Farrar said.

A veterinarian read Pagan’s proposal to ensure adequate care would be given to the mice.

“None of the time frames for the induced treatment times were sufficiently long enough to cause any actual harm to the animal,” Dr. Farrar said. “It may make them uncomfortable, but that’s the point.”

After a proposal is approved, students collect data during first semester. They will learn to analyze that data, write a paper and give presentations in second semester.

People often use fish and insects in their research, but the last time someone used mice was in 2018, Dr. Farrar said.

After Pagan’s research is over, the mice will move to a new home. 

“We always put them up for adoption, and we usually get kids that will adopt them and take them home,” Dr. Farrar said.

This story was originally published on Marquette Messenger on January 3, 2025.