The World is Her Oyster: 7th Grade science fair winner inspired by the Conservancy!

Chloe Jenniches, a student at A.P. Giannini Middle School, won first place in the San Francisco Citywide Science Fair’s seventh grade biological science category with her project “The World is Your Oyster.”  Her project hypothesized that a group of native Olympia oysters would affect the biological and chemical contents of the water around them.  In addition to producing a time lapse photography component showing the oysters removing algae from a tank, she measured pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, temperature and turbidity before and after the experiment, and performed algal cell counts on a microscope slide grid from water samples taken every two hours.  Her results showed a significant improvement in turbidity as well as visible algae reduction in the test (oyster) tank. Microscope analysis of water samples also showed a reduction in algal cell count in the test tank over time. She was inspired by a desire to investigate issues pertinent to the San Francisco Bay region, and she was introduced to the San Francisco Bay Living Shorelines Project and the range of oyster research currently underway.  She came out and helped with field and lab monitoring led by UC Davis/San Francisco State lab tech Stephanie Kiriakopolos at the Romberg Tiburon Center.  She learned about the NERR climate change stressor study on native oysters, and was inspired by UC Davis graduate student Brian Cheng’s tank experiment showing the visual results from oyster filtering.

See Chloe’s time lapse video here.

More info on the SF Bay Living Shorelines Project here.