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Three students received cash prizes from the Native Plant Society of Texas for native plant-related projects at the Texas State Science and Engineering Fair in San Antonio.
The winning project in the junior level is Pecan’s Effects on Soil by Mark Stelluti, winner of one hundred dollars. In the senior level Mikyla Stalbaum and Carola Cortinas won for their team project The Power of Texas Lantana. Each will receive two hundred dollars.
The state science fair is sponsored by ExxonMobil and co-sponsored by the Texas Workforce Commission with The University of Texas at San Antonio hosting the affair at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center.
In my capacity as Vice-President, Education, of the Native Plant Society, I went looking for projects whose subject was a native plant or native plant habitats. I was not expecting even one project because I had not been able to inform the science teachers of Texas of the Society’s intention to give monetary awards to worthy projects. However, when I got on the floor of the competition, I found five very good projects dealing in some way with Texas native plants or their habitats.
- Phytoremediation of Fertilizer Polluted Water by Lemna minor: this researcher determined that pond duckweed could reduce nitrates and nitrites from water.
- Pecan’s Effects on Soil: this researcher looked at soil under his pecan tree to try to determine why nothing grew under it.
- An Analysis of Wildfire Effects on Plants and Their Rhizospheres: this senior level researcher used bluebonnets and their associated nitrogen fixing nodules grown on freshly burned grass to see the effects on the nodules.
- The Power of Texas Lantana: the senior level researchers of this team project showed that lantana “juice” could be used as an insecticide and it could also be used to alter the pH of water moving the pH from acid to neutral.
- Uncontrolled Wildfires and Their Effects on Soil Nutrients: this senior lever researcher used a local wildfire to analyze soil nutrients after the fire versus an unburned area’s soil nutrients.
All projects were worthy and the young researchers were well-versed in their projects, talking about it with ease and clarity. The winning projects were chosen because, besides being well-done projects, their purposes aligned closely with the Native Plant Society mission statement.
Interacting with all these young researchers was an enjoyable exercise for me as well.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: Dawn Hancock
