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Scott is very involved in community service and has led drives supporting victims of abuse and hurricanes. He helped build a school in Ecuador and is training to be a hospital volunteer. "It's fun and fulfilling, because it provides concrete help and dignity to those in need," he says. Scott hopes to become a scientist someday. "I'd like to continue research and teach a college science or serve in the health industry."
Scott's martial arts instructor, Master Guak, is his mentor. "He has helped me develop many qualities that are important to everyone, but essential to scientists: humility, respect, integrity, and self-discipline," he says.
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As his grandmother's memory was declining, energy drinks were promoted as a way to aid memory. Scott determined that the main ingredient in these drinks is caffeine, and he wanted to test whether the response to caffeinated coffee would improve the cognitive recall and reaction time of adults. He also wanted to see if adults older than 60 years would be more improved than those under the age of 60.
Working with a physician, Scott recruited 46 daily coffee drinkers. They were asked to arrive early in the morning and to be caffeine deprived. The subjects' age ranges were 20-40, 40-60, and 60-plus. In a cognitive recall test, they were given 10 words to study for a minute then were asked to write down as many of the words as they could remember. A reaction test that involved grasping a wooden yardstick as it's dropped was also administered. Then, the subjects drank a six-ounce cup of coffee. After 45 minutes, they were re-tested. All age groups improved in both cognitive recall and reaction times while under the influence of caffeine, supporting Scott's hypothesis. The reaction time of the subjects in the 60-plus age group improved the most; however, the 20-40 age group improved the most in cognitive recall.
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