Through Lemont High School’s Exemplary Student Research Program (2018-2020), students worked closely with Dr. Olga Antipova (Argonne National Laboratory) and Dr. George Sterbinsky (Argonne National Laboratory) and examined the relationship between the contamination of carrot, oregano, arabidopsis, lettuce and tomato seeds with heavy metals and their root uptake with a focus on cobalt, chromium and arsenic. This year, the Lemont High School Exemplary Student Research Program student researchers participated in testing, observation, and analysis of plant uptake of cobalt to determine the long-term impacts of element toxicity and its relation to plant vitality.