Student researcher, new to WAMAS/Fishkeeping from Sterling

[Protoreaster]

Hello all,

 

I am a junior at Dominion High School and currently attend the Loudoun Academy of Science (AOS), a magnet science and math program.  One of the keystone aspects of the AOS is the required two year research projects each student must investigate as a junior and senior.  These projects can cover a variety of subjects ranging from environmental science to computer programming and math modeling.  

 

I was fortunate enough to be included in a partnership program for my research project.  The program allows two AOS students to collaborate with two Singaporean students on comparative research projects.  My partner and I are nearing the end of our first year researching the effects of a protein on the rates of starfish cell regeneration, and by the time August rolls around we will travel to Singapore to present our research as a team of four to Singaporean science judges.

 

In May we submitted our project to the Google Science Fair (Link to our Google submission here: https://goo.gl/wCI5jA.  In early June we participated at the AOS science symposium and were awarded first place in the category of Animal Science.  We hope to apply to the Siemens science competition in October once we gather more data. The AOS has had some winners of Siemens and other high profile competitions (Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair) so we are crossing our fingers!

 

I posted on the education forum to bring to light some of the comprehensive work currently conducted in the neighborhood by students with an interest in marine biology and fish keeping.  By conducting our project, my partner and I solidified personal enthusiasm to pursue fish keeping and to further the efforts of other student researchers with the same passion that we’ve discovered.  There are quite a few other students of Loudoun County and the Loudoun Academy of Science (AOS) who have completed projects that are relevant to the husbandry of aquatic creatures and keeping our oceans clean so I would love to encourage them to post/join here about their journeys, or even ask for advice on successful animal husbandry (if the WAMAS community would be interested).  After realizing how much our backgrounds in fish keeping aided the progress of our project, It would be a dream for my partner and me to facilitate some sort of connection between the AOS and WAMAS community for researchers with an enthusiasm for marine biology

 

For those of you who check out my post on the education forum, thanks for listening to my story!  I look forward to joining the community and formally entering the hobby!

 

Here is a link to my thread in the Education forum:  http://wamas.org/forums/topic/78553-loudoun-academy-of-science-starfish-husbandryregeneration-investigation/

 

Best wishes, Thanks for listening to my story,

 

Dale “Protoreaster”

[traveller7]

Welcome to the Club Dale!

 

Definitely encourage your peers at AOS conducting research on marine organisms to share insight and gather same here at WAMAS.  As you and your research partner found, enormous amounts of time was saved by having some experienced assistance in the marine keeping basics.  Not to mention access to quality used equipment reducing entry costs extending funds toward actual research materials.

 

Keep up the great work which has already broke new ground in your field of research.

 

Dad

[sen5241b]

Welcome! You can certainly get a lot of questions answered here. Are you ready to say anything about starfish cell regeneration yet?

[Protoreaster]

Thanks for the visiting the thread sen5241b.  So far I can say that the data suggests that Bone Morphogenetic Protein plays a role within the proliferation of starfish cells.  We are currently looking at ways to collect causal evidence for Bone Morphogenetic Protein’s ability to increase the rates of starfish cell regeneration and cell differentiation. Our results point towards a promising conclusion so what lies ahead will be interesting! My thread on the education forum goes into more detail on the specifics of our future plans that will allow us to conclude whether BMP is truly affecting regeneration rather than proliferation.