“We found that over a period of time, these effects kind of wore off,” Chernack said. “There is potentially an alternate pathway that [differentiation] functions through. Stem cells are obviously very important… the starting point is being able to culture these stems cells and get them to differentiate and you can’t do that unless you know what you’re doing or why it’s happening.”

Chernack said that while he was very interested in the research he had done in high school, he was more inclined to pursue his interest in the humanities in college, specifically in political science at Georgetown University.

“I don’t view [political science] as that different,” Chernack said. “I think either way it’s kind of looking at how things interact with each other.”

According to Herb Weiss, the science research teacher at South Side High School for the past five years, the skills gained and perfected in the course can have a broad spectrum of uses. Weiss added that the students are often taking trips to see various speakers and study different parks, allowing them to develop different abilities.

“What they develop here are these critical and analytical thinking skills that can be used in many fields,” Weiss said.