Pirates Prepare for State Science Fair Competition

 

Savanna Ware: "Efficacy of intraoperative lead apron position on blocking radiation exposure". She tested four different positions for lead aprons on a patient (a mannequin) in the operating room and ran the radiation exposure time for one minute. Each position was tested ten times, and the radiation was recorded with a radiation badge positioned on the mannequin's neck. The hope is that her experiment can be used to help educate physicians on where to position lead aprons to best reduce radiation exposures for patients in the operating room. The apron below the patient best reduces radiation exposure. 

 

Lily Strauss: “Vehicular Heat Death: Determining Carbon Dioxide Threshold in Tenebrio molitor”. Lily observed the cellular respiration in an insect and amount of carbon dioxide levels affected by elevated temperatures in a vehicle and whether this could be used to develop an alert system to detect retained passengers in hot cars.

 

 

Jake Damiani: “The Effects of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation density on Faunal(Animal) diversity and abundance”. Jake’s project studied the total amount of animals in certain densities of seagrass. The goal was to prove the importance of seagrass in our lagoon and how it impacts marine life there.

 

 

Katie Croom: “Growth and Orientation of Diatoms in Shear Flows Determined with Holographic Imaging”. She compared images of diatom chains (phytoplankton) from the ocean and from the lab to measure the lengths, angles, and total colonies. She determined that the layer of the ocean where phytoplankton is most prevalent is the pycnocline, where there is shear flow and the phytoplankton can both align horizontally and grow at a more prolific rate.