Worms OD on Caffeine in Al-Amal Students' State Science Fair Project

Two students scientists from  in Fridley were among more than 500 students at the 75th Annual Minnesota State Science & Engineering Fair last weekend.

Ayub Ali, a seventh grader, got the idea for an experiment on regenerating body parts while talking to his father, who lost a toe after being shot as a soldier in Somalia, according to an article by at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. 

Ali and partner Adam Adan tested how aspartame and caffeine affect planaria, a kind of flatworm that can regenerate lost body parts. 

Ali told Regan caffeine did not spur faster regeneration, as the team had predicted. Rather, the worms appeared to have overdosed on it. 

for its middle- and high-school students last month. 

Last year, three Al-Amal students  on lighting efficiency at the I-SWEEEP Olympiad in Houston, where they .