Magerle Leads H-ton at Long Island Science Congress
The Huntington High School science research program turned in a very strong performance in the Long Island Science Congress’ varsity division, winning an assortment of awards at the competition held on the campus of St. Joseph College in Patchogue.
Huntington’s top performer was junior Peter Magerle, who qualified for the New York State Science Congress finals on May 31 at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton. The teenager’s research project, “The Effects of Different Substrates on the Basking Behaviors in Trachemys scripta elegans” won rave reviews from the judges.
Huntington’s Long Island Science Congress representatives also included Andrew Gunthner, Oliva Stamatatos, Gregory West, Max Kaplan, Alexandria Mandriota and the research teams of Caroline McCartney and Anna Brosoff and Brandon May and James Sosa.
Schools from across Long Island competed for top awards and Huntington High School more than held its own. “Our team did very well and brought home many awards this year,” said teacher Lori Kenny, who heads Huntington’s science research program.
The Long Island Science Congress provides a forum for an exhibit of adjudicated science projects by Nassau and Suffolk middle school, junior high school and senior high school students. Sponsored by the LI section of the Science Teachers Association of New York State, the LI Science Congress was founded in 1950 under the umbrella of the NYS Science Teachers Association and The Nassau Daily Review-Star newspaper.
Ms. Stamatatos earned an Achievement Award. Garnering Meritorious Awards were Messrs. Sosa, May and Kaplan, Ms. Brosoff, Ms. McCartney and Ms. Mandriota. Messrs. West and Gunthner both captured honorable mention recognition.
Mr. Magerle’s specific award will be announced on May 19 during the Long Island Science Congress’ annual ceremony at The Wheatley School in Old Westbury. The teenager is prepping now for the state championships at Brookhaven National Lab.
The following is an abstract of Mr. Magerle’s research project:
“The Red Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) has certain aspects of their behavior that could be affected by different terrain. It was contemplated that if the turtles were given several options for basking platforms, they would choose the platform that gave off the most thermal energy. Two sliders were split up and put in different areas containing several types of substrates. These substrates include concrete, garden dirt, garden mulch, and pet store reptile dirt.
“The Trachemys scripta elegans were looked at over a period of three week, with each trial lasting five minutes. For every trial, it was measured how much time each slider spent on the different substrates. After the experiment concluded, it was seen that the sliders spent 27% of their average basking time on the garden dirt substrate. Over all, a total average of 81.24 seconds were spent on the garden dirt while the sliders only spent on average 58.25 seconds on the concrete, store bought reptile dirt had 49.1 seconds, and garden mulch had an average of 78.48 seconds. These results may vary between other types of turtles depending on the amount of energy they need from the sun.
“Most turtles have determined energy requirement depending on their role in the ecosystem. In the end, the total amount each experimental group spends of the different substrates proves the hypothesis incorrect. The amount of thermal energy given off by a substrate does not determine if the Trachemys scripta elegans will spend more or less time basking of the terrain.”