Abstracts from Winning Projects
The following abstracts are from projects that won best of fair awards at GNSEF in 2005.
The antibacterial effects of honey on DH5 E-coli
Year in school: 10, Age 16
Category: Microbiology
This is an investigation of the antibacterial effects of honey on the DH5 strand of E-coli. This study contains plates of 12 different types of honey from all over the world they were: Rap e from Canada, Basswood from Minnesota, Orange from California, Clover from Minnesota, Clover from North Dakota, Locust from Romania, Horsemint Texas and Multi-floral from Uraguay, Cotton from Arkansas, Soy from Arkansas and Tallow from Texas. All of the plates were filled with three grams of honey per plate. Then 8 ml of nutrient agar was put in with the honey. After that they were streaked with the DH5 strand of E-coli and put in the incubator for 24 hours. They then were observed to see if there was any inhibition in the plate. It was noticed that there were levels of inhibition on all of the plates except the control.
The Effects of L-Arginine Supplementation on Daphnia magna Phase 2
Year in school: 10, Age 16
Category: Medicine and Health
NOX3 is a nutritional supplement used for vasodilation containing L-arginine, ornithine, and alpha-ketoglutarate. Increasing concentrations of NOX3 were added to 300 ml of non-chlorinated well water containing thirty Daphnia magna (D. magna). After 30 min. exposure to the well water, heart rates of D. magna were observed and recorded (baseline). Following 30 min. of NOX3 exposure, the measurements were repeated (treatment). During the 30 minutes of baseline and treatment exposures, the atmospheric content of the flask was monitored with a Vernier Lab Pro containing a light probe, an oxygen probe, a carbon dioxide probe, and a temperature probe. These measurements were used to monitor the control conditions. Preliminary results indicated that NOX3 reduced heart rates for D. magna. Nitric oxide (NO) causes smooth muscle relaxation, and L-arginine is a substitute for nitric oxide synthase production of NO. To determine if L-arginine, the substrate for nitric oxide was responsible for the heart rate response, further experiments, using pure L-arginine and L-NAME, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor were then tested.
The Efficiency of Photomultiplier Tube Cosmic Ray Detectors
Year in school: 12, Age 16 (Team Project)
Category: Physics, Team
This project set out to discover how accurately photomultiplier tube (PMT) cosmic ray detectors measure cosmic rays. First, two small (20.32 cm per side) and two large (60.96 cm per side) PMT cosmic ray detectors were obtained. Instances of agreement between the two small detectors were recorded and set as the rate of known cosmic rays. The frequency of the large detectors agreeing with the known cosmic rays was also recorded. The relationship between that frequency and the known cosmic rays is the efficiency of the detector. This project shows how the efficiency of the detector varies as a function of the distance from its PMT.
