EDMONDS – Michael Maldazys, a car buff with an interest in chemistry, compared the use of platinum with palladium in automotive catalytic converters.

Emma Brewster, a soccer player, explored the implications of the Title IX law on women’s sports and its effects on her family.

Chen Xie analyzed Mao Zedong’s speeches and the late Chinese leader’s attitudes toward artists, writers and intellectuals to better understand how Mao developed policies that led to the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.

“I never heard much about the cultural part of the Cultural Revolution,” he said. “I wanted to know more.”

All three students spent hours at the University of Washington libraries poring over technical journals and documents, and looked to experts for guidance. Each invested more than 30 hours in research in a 4,000-word high school essay.

“This is college-level research,” said Nancy Cartwright, director of challenge and enrichment programs for the Edmonds School District.

Maldazys, 17; Brewster, 17; and Xie, 18, are seniors in the district’s International Baccalaureate program based at Edmonds-Woodway High School. Their essays are among several rigorous requirements in the intensive pre-university program they must complete to earn a full International Baccalaureate diploma.

Thirty seniors are candidates for the diploma this year. Next year, the district expects twice as many.

That sharp growth is the reason the program is reaching beyond the Edmonds-Woodway campus to find mentors for students, and to start the extended essay project during the students’ junior year.

“This is a good problem to have, but it is a challenge to find enough adults to match with students to meet their mentoring needs,” said David Quinn, an International Baccalaureate instructor.

After choosing a general topic, students work with a mentor with expertise in the subject to narrow the scope of their research. All three students said mentors were important to helping them narrow their topics and evaluate their ideas.

Then the students conduct original research before meeting with their mentor to review the drafts of their essay.

Quinn served as a mentor to a student last year. It was rewarding, he said.

“In the classroom, I am putting forth the ideas, and the students are building new knowledge from them,” he said. “In the case of the extended essay, the student is working on their own original ideas, and I am helping them define their focus. It’s a different kind of relationship you forge.”

Mentors may find themselves surprised by the depth and breadth of students’ knowledge and their work ethic, Quinn said.

Sample topics include:

* World religions – “Sufism: An alternate vision for Islam in contemporary Britain.”

* Physics – “Fluid fingers and arms of lighting: Applications of fractals in physics.”

* Biology – “The effect of detergent toxicity on certain bacterial strains.”

District teachers don’t assess the essays. They are sent to other schools in the International Baccalaureate program for review.

“It’s a blind process,” Quinn said. “We don’t know where the papers are going until we are told. It could be anywhere on the planet. Will it go to Nigeria, Egypt, Paris or Iowa? We can’t predict.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.

Be a mentor

The International Baccalaureate program in the Edmonds School District seeks mentors to help students with an extended essay requirement.

To learn more and view subject areas, go to www.edmonds.wednet.edu.

To volunteer or for further information, contact teacher David Quinn at quinnd@edmonds.wednet.edu or 425-670-7311, ext. 6168.