Journal Entries

3/30/09

Well, my results at State were not as good as I hoped but I think I learned a lot and I was offered a scholarship to Texas Tech. This year the fair went to only two judges for the main awards category. One of mine was a small animal vet, and the other was a deep sea fisherman who confided he'd never even been to a science fair before. There's a lot to sizing up your judges and giving them the level of project they want. I think mine is was too complicated - especially for the judge who was a fisherman and I probably should have simplified it more. Still its all good and and it will make my project better for ISEF. I missed seeing many of my old friends at State this year - and I hope to see them back. I also hope they bring back the third judge for the main awards. Two judges isn't enough. I did have several other special award judges, but its just not the same. On a brighter note - I was interviewed by a San Antonio news station and someone said they saw me on TV. I wish I had gotten to see it - still it was fun.    Take care- and for all of you heading to ISEF - look me up. I will be in booth AS003 - Copepods and Cholera. Oh and congrats to the winners at State - Great Job- Great Projects!!

3/17/09 Happy St. Patrick's Day. Sorry it's been so long since I've written. Last year I got to attend Intel ISEF 2008 in Atlanta where I won a fourth grand award in life science and I got to got back again - Intel ISEF 2009 in RENO!!!!!. I really thought it would be my last year of doing science fair - mostly because I just don't have as much time with all my school work, soccer and looking ahead to college. But as the deadlines started approaching this year I thought I would give it a try one more time and see if I could get back to Intel.

Last year ISEF as probably the most amazing experience of my life. There were so many people from all over the county and the world and their projects were amazing. I was really intimated by the work I saw and honestly I didn't understand all of it. I had to remind myself, that everyone has their own area of expertise and if I had spent the last year studying things like mathmatical knot theories, I might not feel so overwhelmed. It was also hard being one of the few freshmen and youngest competitors. Most people I met were either juniors or seniors and had been working at research labs for years. Anyway I can't describe how amazing it was so I will try and post a few pictures in a couple of days. Even though I felt intimidated I still won fourth grand award in my category. In one afternoon I had over 27 judges - most of whom were Phd's. They had studied my paper the day before the competition and arrived ready to go through my project in more detail than I could have ever imagined.

Anyway this year I decided to study cholera and copepods and was very lucky to be able to work at the UT Southwestern Biomedical Research facility. I didn't expect to find any vibrios on my copepods, and was planning for a null experiment - but instead there was coccoid shaped viable but not culturable cholerae in almost every sample. This was pretty shocking so I wrote Dr. Rey at UFMEL, and I also talked with the test kit manufacturer. It's generated a lot of interest and now I'm looking at following up with DNA testing to confirm my results. I took the project to Regionals and again won grand prize - so it turns out that I'm goin to make my second trip to ISEF after all. This time - I will not be as intimidated and am going to enjoy every minute of being there. I'm going with a team from North Texas that except for me is all male. I hope that some of my friends from last year qualiy at the state competition- You know who you are - so I won't name names.... but good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally I want to saysomething to a really good friend of mine who got an unfortuante break at he regional competition - but it applies to everyone. "BELEIVE IN YOURSELF AND DONT EVER GIVE UP - EVER!  JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU CANT DO IT ANYMORE - EVERYTHING WILL CLICK AND YOU WILL GET THE RECOGNITION AND OPPORTUNITY THAT YOU HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO EARN."

Well - I'll keep you posted on my prepartions for Internationals over the next few weeks. If your going to ISEF this year - look me up - My project is AS0003!

4/2/08 Well Science Fair season is in full swing and I’m getting ready for Intel.   Yes that’s right - INTEL INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR. My project won Grand Prize at the Beal Bank Regional Science Fair which means Atlanta – here I come!!!!!!!!!!! I was completely shocked especially after seeing the amazing projects at Regional. I know in some Regional Science Fairs don’t have many competitors or they don’t have many competitors in one category. In Dallas every category is filled with amazing projects, many of whom I’m sure would be ISEF in other regions. I only hope that I can live up to the honor and opportunity that the judges have given me. Another neat thing about winning Grand Prize is that in the senior division you receive an $18,000 scholarship to SMU. SMU has an amazing campus right in the middle of Dallas.

I’ll try to keep you posted on my preparations for Atlanta. Right now I’m trying to decide if should change my display board. Most pictures from Intel 2007 show professionally printed posters, whereas mine is a home made display board made out of three canvases.

11-7-07 Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated but lot’s has been going on. I’m now attending Ursuline Academy in Dallas which is an amazing all-girl school founded in 1874, just a few years after the Civil War. There are so many traditions and I hope I have started a new one. When I started at Ursuline they didn’t sponsor or compete in Science Fair. After talking with the school I found they were amazingly willing to support every student’s unique interests including my own. For they first time in many years they have agreed to participate in Science Fair!!!!!

After that I had to get clearance for this year’s project for the SRC which came in the mail yesterday! Finally I spoke with Dr. Rey and they just cleared their tanks so I won’t be able to get more copepods to work with until early December. That will push my project into December and I’ll have to do most of the work at the same time as finals. That’s something I was able to avoid last year - but I’ll make due somehow.

Other good news !!!! I made the Ursuline Soccer Team. The school has won 17 consecutive championships and was named the #1 girls high school soccer program in the nation. Okay - now for the sad news…. I wasn’t selected as a finalist for DCYSC and I was really disappointed- but at the same time - there’s nothing to be done about it. No more DCYSC for me - now my goal is Intel! I will say one thing about the Intel International Fair - at least their judging guidelines are published and made available to everyone, plus you can see the projects that have won. That’s going to be a huge help - and it’s also my Science Fair Tip #1: Before you start your project read the judging criteria which is usually posted on the websites. Make sure your project addresses every element in the criteria and score sheets.

9-6-07 Her is an aritcle published this week in the Advocate, our local newspaper. It takes a while to load so be patient. Frankly, it is one of my favorites so far. It might be a little hard to read so grab a pair of glasses or something and enjoy.

8-24-07 I am extremely excited to tell you that I have made the semi- finals of the Discovery Channel Young Scientists Challenge! Translated, it means that I am in the top 400 science students and in the running to make the finals and go to Washington D.C. This competition is what I have been pretty much working towards this entire year. It is a huge releif that I have finally gotten part of the way there!

While it’s my second nomination I’m not alone. There are 31 other students who have received previous nominations and in theory that should help our chances of getting to the finals. Generally speaking only the top 10% advance to the finals; but in 2006 if you were a repeat nominee your odds increased to about 23%. If you were a repeat nominee and an 8^th grader you had a 29% chance of being selected for the finals.

Her is an aritcle published this week in the Advocate, our local newspaper. It takes a while to load so be patient. Frankly, it is one of my favorites so far. It might be a little hard to read so grab a pair of glasses or something and enjoy.
Her is an aritcle published this week in the Advocate, our local newspaper. It takes a while to load so be patient. Frankly, it is one of my favorites so far. It might be a little hard to read so grab a pair of glasses or something and enjoy.

Like last year, this year there are 31 repeat nominees, but this year SEVEN of those were previous finalists. Another difference is in the number of repeat semi-finalists who are in 8^th grade. Last year there were twenty 8^th graders who had been nominated at least once before and 3 of them had been previous finalists. This year there are only sixteen 8^th graders with previous nominations, and of those 5 are previous finalists. I haven’t looked at it too hard but I think there’s a trend toward taking younger students.

Well – I worked hard and I hope my work is good enough to secure me a spot in the finals! This is a once in a lifetime experience!!!!!!!!!!!

7-10-07 Sadly, its official, I’m not going to South Africa for the ESI conference. We didn’t get the paperwork from Milset in time. I’m really bummed, so I’m going to focus on looking at the future. There’s still a hope that I can become a DCYSC finalist and of course – it’s time to start working on Science Fair 2008!

Next year I’ll be in the senior division and the expectations, and competition will really ramp up. I spent some time looking at the senior projects during the State competition and they all showed tremendous creativity, effort and applicability to real life situations. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed working with copepods so much that I hope to work with them again. There are three things I’d like to explore this year are:

1) What is the optimal density of copepods for use in mosquito abatement?
2) How do different food sources affect copepod-larva predation?
3) Can sufficient percentages of dried copepod eggs hatch after reintroduction in water, to support ongoing mosquito abatement after the drying death of initial colony? Published reports indicate that copepod eggs can still hatch after been dried out. If sufficient numbers hatch on a regular basis, this would be an indicator of how effective copepods would be in areas with intermittent standing water like gutters and storm drains.

Ultimately I’d like to try to eradicate a WNV mosquito species within a 400 yard radius of a specific area but that’s going to take several years. Still I’m optimistic it can be done. In Vietnam, using only copepods, a village based effort successfully eradicated malaria carrying mosquitoes within a small radius of their village. If it worked for malaria vectors, then maybe we can make it work for WNV vectors in certain environments.

As far as my website – I’m going to keep it another year and try to add a place for you to post comments! I’d love to hear what everyone thinks and to share info about all of our projects. Until next time....

7-10-17 Cont. I know I said I was going to try to make a way to interact and my first step towards that is a way to contact myself personally. It isn't perfect but it is email. That adress is attached to the site so it is tari42@mysciencefairproject.net. Don't be shy. Any ideas or suggestion are welcome, either about the site or the actual project. Anyway, till I have anything else to add....

6-19-07 The possibility of me being able to go to South Africa is dimming. Milset hasn't set me any information regarding the conference for the past month. I am becoming very worried. It is starting to look like I won't be able to go after all. Of course there is a still a chance but at the rate we are going right now it doesn't seem very great. Everything has it's set backs and unfortunately this will probably be one of them. However, Discovery Channel is still in the running. They sent my a letter saying they received my application on time and in perfect order. I will keep everyone posted on that front!

6-1-07 Today was the due date for my Discovery Channel Young Scientists Challenge. Of course I sent my application in a few weeks ago, I still can't help but feel excited. It would be really spectacular if I was accepted. I am one step closer to perhaps reaching my goal!

5-30-07 I am elated to announce that the House of Representatives has made a resolution honoring me and my work with my science fair project! It is really amazing to be recognized on such a federal level. I feel so honored by the resolution. You can see the actual writing on my Fun Facts and Links Page. It still amazes me how far I have come with this won science fair project. I can't wait to see if I get to go South Africa and Washington D.C.!

5-13-07 Finally my story has been put onto the television! I am so pleased with the results. Rebecca Aguilar did a wonderful job reporting. Before I say anything else about the interview and the news story, I have several people I really need to thank that I couldn't have gotten this far without. First of all my two science teachers, Mrs. Klammer and Mrs. Herrin, were a huge help. Those two teachers are the ones who really got me interested in science fair and really science in general! Like I said, this would not be possible without their guidance. Another person I must thank is Dr. Jorge Rey. He is a copepodologist from the University of Florida who answered all of my ridiculous questions and further more supplied with the tools necessary to complete this project. Without him I wouldn't even have copepods to test with! My final thank-you goes to my lovely parents who dealt with my strange hobby for the eight months I was testing. Not only were they tolerant but they really gave my support when my energy was petering out and I didn't think I could keep up my work. Thanks to everyone for supporting me through this whole ordeal! I will keep you posted. With some really hard work, a little luck and perseverance maybe I will get as far as the Discovery Channel Young Scientist's Challenge! I'll also keep you posted on South Africa - Wow what a huge dream it would be to attend the conference. The opportunity to present my project in a part of the world where it could have the most impact would be amazing, and I hope to get to meet lots of other students from around the globe who love science just like me.

5-7-07 The award ceremony for state science fair has been just concluded. I am very happy to announce that everything went better than I could have possibly imagined! I was hoping to just win in my category but was able to exceed far beyond that. Like at regionals I was awarded first grand prize in life science, which was amazing. That alone is one of the most prestigious awards that you can receive. For that I was given a beautiful glass award in the shape of Texas with the award's title engraved in it. Before I was able to sit down after getting to walk up and receive my award though, they called me up because I had won the ultimate and 'most coveted' award given, the Best of Fair award. This is like the ultimate grand prize. To win this award you compete against every singly other middle school science project, life sciences and physical science. I was also given another EPA special award later. This year's science fair was really reached it maximum possibilities. I am so pleased and so amazed. There are so many people I have to thank that I couldn't have gotten this award without. I also want to give a huge shout out to all the great friends I made at State and Regionals - Tess, David, Madelyn, Adittiya, David S., Colin, and Rohit- you guys all had amazing projects and I know that next year it's going to be one of you guys that takes the grand prize!

3-24-07 Yes! Today was regionals and it was a huge success. I had about ten judges total, normal and special award judges come by and talk to me about my project. I don't think I was able to sit down the entire time! Anyway, I was extremely excited when they called me back in after I won first in my category (animal sciences) for the grand prize judging round. That was much shorter and I only had about three judges that came all at once. I got to meet a lot of other very smart and successful science fair competitors. The biggest shock of the day was when I was awarded first grand prize in life sciences! This is the highest award you can win so I am very pleased. The icing on the cake was my total of three special awards that I was given. The three were from the EPA, Veternarian Association, and finally, the Navy. I am very pleased with myself today and I look forward to state science fair in San Antonio.

2-8-07 I turned in my project just yesterday for judging and today I got the results back. The good news is I won grand prize/first at my school making this a great start for my year. Regionals is just a month away now, time in which I will be practicing for judges, something that is not done at my school. I am extremely pleased with my results so far. I will write back after regionals!

2-4-07 The board is now finished and science fair is three days away. I'm so pleased to be finished on time, or ahead of time really. The headboard, which I designed on PrintShop, will be ready to be picked up on the sixth.

1-28-07 I have finished my work with my data-finally. It took much longer than I could have ever imagined. The good news is that the results were favorable towards copepods in the early instars. That of course proves my hypothesis correct. One of the additions I put on the project was a way to guage which larva killing agent was the best overall. Though this wasn't my question, I knew people would ask me about it. I gave certain amounts of points to each agent for certains things such as LD50, half-life, toxicity, and many more. The one overall with the most points was the 'winner.' Anyway, I can now start to make the board as my final step. School science fair is less than two weeks away which means I really need to get finished soon.

1-17-07 Due to imclement weather, school was cancelled today which gave my a huge chunk of time to work with. I made lots and lots and lots of graphs and looked into the many ways I can analyze my data. One of the ones that I am particularly interested in is the chi squared method. It is very complex but I think it would work very well with my project. I will begin to work with it soon hopefully. On the note with the graphs, I have made comparison graphs and overall average graphs. It is all very extensive and I am pleased with my progress. There is so much data that I almost feel overwhelmed.

1-13-07 Today I finished all of my testing! I ran the bti instar 3-4 tests that are stated in my later post(bti-nf, bti-wf, bti-c-nf, bti-c-wf). Everything went smoothly again and I happy to say that I can now begin the next stage of my project that includes crunching data, analyzing results, typing papers, making my board, and other things that must be done in final preparation for the showing of my science fair. I must really start working on this fast because my school science fair is only of February 7th! I am not too concerned though, I know I will finish everything timely and very professionaly.

1-8-07 I started my instar 1-2 bti trials today. The tests I ran included bti with no alternate food, bti with alternate food, bti with copepods and alternate food, and finally bti with copepods and no alternate food. I also finished a the permethrin instar 1-2 test I had missed earlier. The tests ran successfull without any incidents. I look forward to completeing the last of my testing soon.

1-3-07 Prepared another mosquito culture for bti testing. Hopefully this will be my last hatch. Larvae began hatching after only ten minutes.

12-15-06 I can’t do the last of the trials without Dr. Burns since they involve Bti, a bsl-1 substance/organism. I will do these trials in early January! So it’s off for Christmas holidays for me.

Happy Holidays!

12-7-06 More water testing. Methoprene samples showed ph was raised to 7.0 whereas everything else was between 6.6 and 6.8 for organic, permethrin and pyrethrin.

12-5-06 Terminated mosquito colony as it started moving into pupa stage. No kills yet for the methoprene.

12-1-06 More testing This time it was 3 trials of methoprene, 3 trials of pyrethrin, 3 organic trials and 3 permethrin trials. All at the instar 3-4 stage. Methopene is an adult inhibitor which means it doesn’t kill the larvae – it just keeps them from hatching to adults. The pyrethine affects the nervous system and paralyzes the larvae. It makes it hard to tell what’s dead and what’s just still. If the larvae are at the top of the water early on, they can survive because they can get air and breathe whereas the ones at the bottom seem to be paralyzed and can’t make it to the top. They either suffocate or the chemical kills them outright. Once again the organic mix is effective but not as much as when the larvae were younger. It took 1:15 minutes to reach LD50. Oh and More water testing 1 for the last copepod trials.

11-24-06 Happy Birthday to me!

Today I finished out these last two trials and worked on the averages and data. Here a shorthand of the my LD50 results and times for killing larvae at the instar 1-2 stage! .
Low Density Copepods with no food – 48 hours to reach average LD50
Low Density Copepods with food – 1:45 minutes to reach average LD50
High Density Copepods with no food – never reached LD50 (I think this was because of the cold front)
High Density Copepods with food – trials reached average LD 50 within 45 minutes.
Pyrethrin reached LD50 within 2 hours Organic reached LD 50 with 45 minutes.

It looks like the organic mix and the high density copepod w/ food mix are about equal so far.

11-23-06 (Thanksgiving) The outside temperature is 76 degrees – welcome to Texas! Inside its still set at 72 degrees. I started two more trial groups. 3 trials of high density copepods with alternative food sources and 2 low density copepods with alternative food sources. In addition to larvae the copepods were offered paramecium to eat. The extra food has had a huge impact on the mortality rates. High density copepods killed 50% of the larvae within 30 minutes and the low density copepods did the same within an hour and a half. That’s far more successful than trials where the copepods had no alternative food. It demonstrates that the copepods are not killing the larvae for food, rather its natural aggression. When they have other food, they have more energy to keep up their killing rampage. Larvae don’t eat paramecium, so I don’t think it’s an issue of killing other consumers of the food source – I think these little bugs are just plain mean – when it comes to larvae.

11-21-06 This time I cut the paper with eggs into thirds. The mosquito eggs come dried out on a paper towel. Last time I used the whole paper and had far too many larvae. I submerged the paper in the deoxygenated water and within 30 minutes the eggs began hatching. It was very successful.

11-20-06 I’ve de-oxygenated more water to start another mosquito culture.

11-13-06 Worked on charts and graphs. I am going to use scatter plots as well since we are learning about them in math.

11-8-06 20 copepods were exposed to permethrin to see if they could survive being combined with this chemical to enhance its effectiveness. All copepods have survived so far and it’s been about 3 hours. I terminated the mosquito culture as it is in the late pupa stages and I’ve already had a few hatch. I’ve kept it under mosquito netting – but I don’t want any more hatches. I used permethrin to terminate the colony and it was very effective in the high doses that I used.

11-6-06 Water Testing/ Water Testing and More Water Testing I tested all the beakers for ph Ammonia, Nitrites and if there was a positive nitrite reading, I tested for nitrates. The spring water I’m using has a pH of 6.8. The copepods raised the pH level to between 7.0 and 7.2. They pyrethrin raised it slightly to 6.8. The nitrogen cycle had started in all the beakers accept the organic group. Copepods had the highest reading with an ammonia level of between 3 and 4, whereas the control group only had an ammonia level of between 1 and 1.5. The pyrethrin had a level between .20 and .25.

10/31/06 A huge cold front came through. The mosquito culture has moved to instar 3-4 and it smells awful! Gosh these little wigglers are nasty. It’s easy to catch the larvae in a pipette but the copepods are still really challenging. I started a new set of trials. High density copepods with no additional food source other than larvae. I also noticed that light really affects the larvae and copepods. Larvae wiggle frantically when under direct light making it difficult for the copepods to ensnare them. I’m going to stop using the overhead lamp during the trials.

10/28/06 I started more trials. 3 with pyrethrin and 3 with an organic mixture of thyme oil, clove oil and sesame oil. The pyrethrin had a little oil, but the organic mix turned the water in to a creamy white oily soup. The organic mixture was highly effective – killing all the larvae within 2 hours. The first organic trial reached LD50 within 30 minutes! The low density copepod trial is still going on. It took 24 hours for the first of the trials to reach ld50 and the other two trials still haven’t. 4 larvae in the control beakers have died.

10/27/06 I started my first six trials. They were 3 trials of low density copepods with no alternative foods, and 3 controls. One of the control groups failed when a chemical was accidentally added to the water. I didn’t use any gravid females because I didn’t want to take a chance on reproduction, plus I suspect that they might behave differently than a mature non-gravid copepod. Catching the copepods is quite hard. They are very good swimmers but they swim in jerky movements. You really have to sneak up on them with the pipette.

10-26-06 Today I purchased two pesticides that I will be working with in the course of this experiment. The first on them is Garden Safe Brand Houseplant & Garden Insect Spray. The reason for the purchase is that pyrethrin is part of the insecticide's active ingredients. Pyrethrin is one of the key pesticides I will be using.

The second of the two pesticides is Cutter Outdoor Fogger. The foggers important active ingredient that we will be working with is permethrin. The fogger will not be sprayed into the water, but on it. The other chemicals that will be acquired later are bt, methoprene, and synthetic pyrenthrins.

On another note, almost all the larvae can easily be seen by the naked eye. I have also noticed that the mortality rate was very low. It seems as though it was a very successful hatching. The larvae have been fed 'mosquito food' which basically consists of ground up dog food. The more they eat the more they grow. The larvae is currently in instar one and I predicate they will move onto instar two by Sunday.

10-25-06 This was a very interesting day. I started hatching my mosquito eggs from Dr. Rey. The eggs themselves looked like tiny pieces up black rice. The single paper towel they were on seems to have had at least a hundred. Taking a tray, I took my prepared water (deoxygenated and chlorine free) and poured it in an inch deep. Then taking the mosquito egg covered paper towel, I completely submerged the paper into the water. The eggs did not float. After waiting thirty minutes, the eggs began to hatch. I noticed that white mucus was appearing in a few places. I am guessing that was some part of an egg. I will need to look into that.

Once thirty minutes had passed, I carefully transported the tray to my microscope where I began to inspect the hatching larvae. The eggs split open longways in which the tiny mosquito larva pulls itself out. I remember reading that male mosquitoes hatch before females. Seeing that many of the eggs had not produced movement, I assumed that those were females. Watching the males work there way out of their eggs was fascinating! The heads and body usually pulled out of the egg very neatly. Though, I watched one larvae try to pull out the tip of its tail for over an half hour. While pulling themselves out, their movements were eratic and jerky. It was also noticed that the larvae would work very hard for several seconds and then take a break in which they just rested. Once hatched, the larvae was nearly invisible to the naked eye. In order to provide warmth, I left small lamp over the tray all night.