Young Naturalist Awards 2001 - student contest sponsored by American Museum of Natural History

For the American Museum of Natural History's fourth annual Young Naturalist Awards, students in grades 7 through 12 were invited to embark on an expedition that focused on a topic in biology, earth science, or astronomy and to document their observations and analyses of the natural world. The winning entries (selected from nearly a thousand) are summarized below. Full-length versions are available in a catalog published by the Museum's National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology and online at www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/.

Shaped by Nature and Man: The Geological History of the Palisades, by Max Arno (Hastings High School, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY; Grade 10)

Along the lower Hudson River rises a series of sheer cliffs known as the Palisades--400 feet high and 200 million years old. Max Arno describes their majesty this way: "My eyes trace the ancient sill of lava curving around the land like a gigantic fortress. Glancing down, I can see the jagged wall of rock plunging straight down. I am fascinated by the thought that continental plates once collided and then pulled apart, and huge glaciers swept across the very spot on which I stand." Not only does Max delineate the cracking, compression, grinding, and polishing that formed these "stark vertical cliffs," but he also explores the Palisades' commercial history--how the rocks were quarried to build Manhattan's brownstones and to pave its streets (in the late 1800s, one firm alone took out 12,000 cubic yards of traprock a day).

Tide Pools and the Life Within Them, by Talia Hancock (Aliso Viejo Middle School, Aliso Viejo, CA; Grade 7)

Talia Hancock, who has always lived near the Pacific Ocean, and who visits the seashore most days, is intrigued by the array of creatures living in tide pools. She dedicated four autumn study sessions to pools at Doheny State Beach in southern California, taking care to visit at different times of the day and to focus on different animals. She writes, for example, that chitons are "about half an inch long and use raspy files on their feet to scrape off algae from the rocks to eat. They have eight sections that let them cling to uneven rocks. Chitons usually eat at night, so I wasn't able to observe them eating." Talia plans to further her research by "learning about how to protect tide pools and the endangered animals in them."

Birding Sector 7, by Daniel Hinnebusch (Upper St. Clair High School, Pittsburgh, PA; Grade 11)

"Normal teenagers do not wake up at two in the morning and drive south for half an hour to look for owls," confesses Daniel Hinnebusch, describing an owling expedition. "Normal teenagers have not even heard of the Christmas Bird Count, an international citizen science bird count that takes place within two weeks of the 25th of December." This bird count (his fourth) and owling expedition (his second) took Daniel to seven sites in the Pittsburgh area within fourteen hours. He logged seventy-six miles by car, eleven miles on foot, and thirty-eight species. Daniel concludes that the Christmas Bird Count is important because it "collects a massive amount of data on the abundance of bird species throughout the United States and other parts of the world."

Tardigrades As Environmental Bio-Indicators, by Amber Hohl (Central Lee High School, Donnellson, IA; Grade 12)

In sixth grade, Amber Hohl fell in love with tardigrades, microscopic invertebrates that inhabit mosses and lichens. Since their hosts "sponge up everything the air brings their way--carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, heavy metals, radiation, and dust," Amber wondered if tardigrades did, too. She soon demonstrated that living downwind of the coal-fired James River Power Plant in Springfield, Missouri, adversely affected their population. To her amazement, her interest in tardigrades led to recent summer fieldwork in Greenland, with fifteen tardigradologists from around the world. There, from a radioactive spring, or "hot zone," Amber collected several moss samples; in one, she observed a rare occurrence: tardigrade carnivory. She looks forward to the prospect of making a "contribution to the discovery of scientific truth."

Nesting Habits of the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), by Elspeth Iralu (Home School Program, Gallup, NM; Grade 8)

Barn swallows nearly always keep the same mate all their lives and migrate every year back to their nesting places in North America from as far south as Argentina. The more Elspeth Iralu watched two pairs nesting on opposite corners of her front porch in New Mexico last year, the more engrossed she became, especially in examining their nests and learning how she could facilitate the birds' nest building and repair. This past summer, each swallow couple raised three sets of young. Elspeth had the opportunity to observe all kinds of behavior; perhaps the quirkiest occurred when she played The Best of World Music on her family's CD player "just to see the barn swallows `dance.'"

Bog Trotting, by Rebecca Kane (Home School Program, Lee, NH; Grade 8)

Lee Hill Bog in New Hampshire has a history that goes back about 10,000 years--when glaciers from the Ice Age retreated, leaving a poorly drained pond in which dying vegetation decomposed and turned to peat. Rebecca Kane analyzed three stages of bog formation as represented by Lee Hill Bog and two nearby ponds, observing that "bogs are so acidic that for plants it is as if they are trying to live in a pond full of orange juice." After visiting the bog one day last September, she recorded her amazement at its variety of life: "The leaves have all turned and the cotton grass has gone to seed. I can hear the songs of migrating birds: phoebes, white-throated sparrows, towhees, catbirds, chipping sparrows. I push through the underbrush, looking for pitcher plants. I find some. Each clump is a different color: some are a deep, shiny red; some are a bright green; and others are bright green but with a network of veins that look as if they are carrying blood. I split one open and find at the bottom all the plant's recent victims."

A Day at the (Barrier) Beach: My Expedition to Sandy Hook, by Madeline Kunsberg (Home School Program, Maplewood, NJ; Grade 9)

"A barrier island has a natural defense against erosion: it moves" writes Madeline Kunsberg, describing the "littoral drift" that continually changes the formation of New Jersey's Sandy Hook. This long, narrow area of dunes and forestland looks "like a curved, brown finger protruding from the northeast coast of New Jersey." Madeline discovered that "over the last 250 years, Sandy Hook has been two and three separate islands, and now it is technically a `barrier spit,' not an island, with a sandy bridge created by the refraction of incoming waves." The vegetation varies, from beach grass and Virginia creeper stabilizing the dunes to eastern red cedar and even prickly pear. Joining an organized science outing, she collected both ocean and bay water samples to test their pH, ammonia, nitrite, and dissolved oxygen content. Madeline spent part of her day, however, scrambling out of poison ivy and the cold undertow. "Perhaps the most memorable lesson of the day was that expeditions never go as planned," she comments.

How Do Humans and Plants Interact in Tidal Wetlands? by Bianca Male (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology, Alexandria, VA; Grade 9)

"Stepping off of our noisy bus into the frigid morning air, I am immediately astounded by the primal beauty of the marsh," writes Bianca Male at the beginning of her field journal devoted to a tidal wetland area at the Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. "The golden and magenta sunrise highlights the background, silhouetting the graceful cordgrass as it dances in the biting wind, and reflecting shards of sparkling light on the glassy water." Although the area appears pristine, Bianca soon sees that invasive Phragmites australis is beginning to choke areas of native Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh cordgrass), which "plays a major role in the detritus-based food web that supports the marsh ecosystem." Plastic wrappers, cigarettes, soda cans, and a discarded shoe further mar the "glittering, wind. whipped water." Bianca ends her journal "pondering not what the marsh will look like in coming years, but whether it will even exist at all."

An Essential Mineral, by Frieda Shmuel (Woodland Middle School, East Meadow, NY; Grade 7)

At 1,300 feet below sea level, Israel's Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth. "Stepping into the Dead Sea was like stepping into a hot cup of tea," observes Frieda Shmuel, who visited it with her family. But what really fascinated her was the sea's exceptionally high salinity. After returning home, Frieda decided to investigate the properties of salt and to conduct an experiment comparing salt crystals from the Atlantic Ocean with those from the Dead Sea. She writes, "I have never thought of salt as valuable. It just has always been there." But without salt, she continues, "we wouldn't be able to survive. Human blood has salt, tears have salt, and body cells cannot function without salt"

First Flights: Fledgling Bald Eagles in Southeast ALaska, by Caitlin Stern (Home School Program, Haines, AL; Grade 12)

Alaska's Chilkat Valley is "the site of the largest bald eagle congregation in the world," which happens each fall, while the salmon are running. For the past three years, Caitlin Stern has participated in a bald eagle ecology study there. Last summer, Caitlin observed bald eaglets fledging from nests at two sites. Spending lengthy hours patiently watching the eagles (and avoiding the many brown bears at one site) allowed her not only to forget herself but also "to discover the wonders of the wide array of other organisms that are part of the environment here. The environment of any one place is vastly complex. By studying one organism, you can begin to see the many ways it is related to and dependent on its environment. Through these eagles, I have come to better understand the place in which I live."

Investigating Vegetation and Small Mammals, by Jennifer Vrentas (State College Area High School, State College, PA; Grade 11)

On a three-week expedition to the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area of Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains, Jennifer Vrentas focused on the biology of three habitats around one stream, Oliver Creek. She examined changes in vegetation at increasing distances from the creek, the types and diversity of small mammals, differences in soil samples and air conditions, and various types of macroinvertebrates. Joining her high school group were seventeen students from a high school in Edinburgh, Scotland. Not only did Jennifer get to camp for the first time in her life, but she also "marveled over how the Scots supposedly spoke the same language as we did yet used so many foreign words. Their use of `trainers' for sneakers, `minging' for disgusting, and `Philadelphia' for any type of cream cheese prompted us to put together a Scottish-American dictionary."

Exploring a Woodlot's Ecosystem, by Susan Wiedmeyer (Mukwonago High School, Mukwonago, WI; Grade 10)

"I never originally thought of my backyard as an `ecosystem,' but this expedition has helped me see how all living and nonliving things are connected through intricate relationships," writes Susan Wiedmeyer, who has enjoyed exploring this "wooded sanctuary" since she was a toddler. House wrens and chickadees compete for cankerworms and caterpillars; wood ducks, gray squirrels, flickers, and screech owls fight for the same nesting sites. She notices the intricate food webs that connect everything in the woodlot to the nitrogen cycle, and, echoing her relatives' comment "My, how you have grown" (delivered at family reunions), she says, "In the same way that I am always changing, so is the ecosystem in my backyard."

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