This proposal would provide to two local high school students an opportunity to work in cutting edge research in the summer of 2012 for a period of 9 weeks. Both students have been identified and have already engaged in volunteer research at the American Museum of Natural History. The students will pursue novel research questions on a full time basis and in concert with ongoing summer research. One research project will involve systematics of the leech family Haemadipsidae. New species descriptions will be accomplished employing legacy collections and recent material in a natural history collection. For the second project, evolutionary relationships and species boundaries within the order Actiniaria will be evaluated, in particular from those of polar and deep-sea chemosynthetic environments using nuclear and mitochondrial gene sequences.
This activity will provide an excellent research experience for the high school students. It will also result in a presentation or publication of the research results.
This award provided summer employment for two senior high school students. The projects included DNA sequencing and computed tomography (CT) of leeches for one student as well DNA sequencing and computed tomography (CT) of deep ocean anemones for the other student. One student assembled a large collection of terrestrial jungle leeches detialing their anatomy, location fo collection, date of collection and a series of curated photogrpahs that allow preliminary species identity on the basis of morphology. The other student exmained deep ocean sea anemones and learned techniques of contemporary molecular DNA sequencing. Both students worked hands-on with a CT scanner and volume graphics software to examine internal morphology in real-time but without destroying the samples themselves. Advance chemical treatment of the animals' tissues with osmium-tetroxide permitted suitable contrast to x-rays in CT scanning efforts for both groups. The results included discovery, determination and publication of the identity of a species of leech in the eye of an African migratory bird. Both students have since matriculated in sciences at the university undergaduate level. The project also created an environment in which local undergraduate interns were given the opportunity to engage in peer-mentoring of the two high-school students during the summer months that they were simultaneously participating in museum science.
