Yeshiva Girls School’s Basya Taub places in top five in contest for neuroscience research
ScienceJerusalem Science Contest

Yeshiva Girls School’s Basya Taub places in top five in contest for neuroscience research

Taub examined the question of whether providing probiotics and gut-healthy food could be considered a form of tzedakah.

Basya Taub at the Jerusalem Science Competition’s Culminating Program in Chicago (Photo by Leah Boyarskiy)
Basya Taub at the Jerusalem Science Competition’s Culminating Program in Chicago (Photo by Leah Boyarskiy)

Basya Taub, a 17-year-old senior at Yeshiva Girls School, has always enjoyed how science is something of a puzzle.

The passion she has for her favorite subject is evident in how she speaks about her research project for the Jerusalem Science Contest, an international competition for 11th- and 12th-grade Jewish students. Taub’s 19-page paper placed her in the top five for girls, earning her a trip to Israel.

The Jerusalem Science Contest is a collaboration between the Walder Science Center and the Jerusalem College of Technology Lev Academic Center. The contest selects a field of science for students to study and conduct research on. This year’s theme was neuroscience.

Her paper and subsequent presentation was called “The Gut Microbiota and Decision Making.” She examined the gut-brain axis, which links the central and enteric nervous systems. Research has shown that gut-brain axis can affect mood and stress, but Taub wanted to determine the role that it plays in making decisions.

She drew on academic research, including a study done at Maastricht University that found that participants who took probiotics exhibited less risk-taking behavior and more future-oriented choices in game-like tasks than those who did not.

For her research, Taub surveyed 45 friends, family and community members, asking about their gut health, eating habits and prebiotic or probiotic intake. She also had them rate how often they wanted to do something that they intellectually knew was a bad decision and the intensity of the desire. Her study found that those who took probiotics or had a healthier diet had lesser rates of desire for something that wasn’t beneficial to them than those who had poorer gut health.

As a contest requirement, the research conducted by students has to have a Judaic connection. For Taub, she examined the question of whether providing probiotics and gut-healthy food could be considered a form of tzedakah. She argued that, because gut health affects risk-taking behaviors, it could affect whether an individual makes risky financial decisions; therefore, ensuring someone has a healthy gut could help them make wiser financial decisions.

In addition to her research project, Taub had to complete assigned readings and watch lectures on neuroscience and its Judaic connection before taking seven tests on the material, in addition to a comprehensive exam. She estimated that she spent five hours studying for each test, and scheduling issues meant she didn’t follow the usual timeline that would have given her two weeks between each test.

“One day, I had a whole test on Friday and then the next one on Monday. It was, like, crazy,” she said. “But I like that. I like keeping busy. I like having something I’m working towards.”

Her science teacher, Okxana Cordova, suggested the contest to Taub. While she did her project independently, she emphasized Cordova’s guidance and dedication. Her teacher suggested the gut-brain axis for her topic, serving as a proctor for the exams and staying on even after leaving her role at Yeshiva Girls School.

Taub said the hardest challenge was finding the time to do everything, particularly as she prepared for Yeshiva Girls School’s biennial theatrical production.

“It was a lot of work, for sure. You know, just like constant, like, straight from school to library, spend three hours there, come back home, eat dinner, spend another three hours,” she said. “I became an expert juggler, definitely learned a lot of time management and multitasking skills from this.”

For future research, she said she’d like to examine whether other parts of cognitive functioning could be affected by gut health, like memory or the symptoms of ADHD. As for her own future, Taub said she enjoyed learning about neuroscience and could see herself exploring it after graduation. She finds neuroscience particularly interesting because it helps her understand how the brain works and how it affects everyday life, but she also has an interest in teaching.

Taub presented her research at the contest’s Culminating Program in Chicago in front of a crowd that she estimated at 100 people. Taub loves public speaking, she said, and the nerves of the day quickly wore off. The entire experience gave her the confidence to succeed, she said.

“If I can choose to do something, I can do it. I didn’t think at the beginning of this that I would actually be winning a trip to Israel and, like, doing all these things. But I did, and so now I’m, like, ‘OK, I can go find other contests, do that, I can go apply to places I don’t think I can get in,’” she said.

As for her trip to Israel, it’ll be Taub’s first time visiting the Jewish state. She’ll be going in late May for an eight-day trip along with the other girls who placed in the top five of the contest.

“It’s definitely going to be so fun to spend it with a bunch of, like, nerdy girls like me. And also, like I said, I’ve never been to Israel before,” she said. “It’s so cool that all these places that I’ve been learning about my entire life, I’m going to be able to see.” PJC

Abigail Hakas is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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