Team: 1001
School: Los Lunas High
Area of Science: Botany
Proposal: Algae has many uses in agriculture, medicine, and a possible biofuel, but the main problem is measuring the growth of the algae because the growth or decay of algae happens to slow to recognize. This is important because algae is a delicate plant that the change in the media (the nutrients the algae grows in) could affect the growth at which the algae grows, if there is too much nutrients then it will grow fast and die out in a short time, but if there is very little nutrient then the algae wouldn’t have a chance to grow. This problem can be fixed if it is spotted before all the algae cells die by changing the culture to media solution ratio. I plan to grow the same cultures of algae in class on a mixer under an L.E.D lamp, with different amount of nutrients over a two week period. The algae will be mixed everyday as well as pictures will be taken to measure the growth. Then I will measure the growth by entering the pictures into Netlogo or Starlogo code to measure the image in pixel measurements in what shades of green the algae shows change in. This will allow for a better measurement of algae growth or decay over a short time and could have further applications.
Mentors:
Abe Anderson
Creighton Edington
Team Members:
Sponsoring Teacher: Anne Loveless