The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Big Sandy High School science teacher Melanie Schwartbach wrote, "Congratulations, to Hope Gasvoda for qualifying for the International Science Fair in Anaheim, California." She went on to tell me that Hope did this project entirely on her own. Melanie had a class during the only time that Hope had to work on her project. So, from the beginning to the end and through the creation of her presentation, she did it without any input my her science teacher. The only time that Melanie talked to Hope about the project was on their way to Great Falls to present her project during the Science Fair.

She sent me the following Science Project Abstract. "This experiment was performed to determine which strains of Arabidopsis thaliana were the most resistant to heavy metals. Arabidopsis thaliana is a plant that has been found to be naturally genetically resistant to heavy metals. The different strains of Arabidopsis thaliana used were Col-0, Lov-1, Ws-2, and Santa Clara. Half of the plants were watered with heavy metal, while the other half were watered normally. They were measured weekly before and after watering to determine differences in growth patterns and appearance. The results indicated that the Ws-2 strain was least resistant to heavy metals and the Santa Clara strain was most resistant. "

After I received it, I asked her to tell me what her project was about in laymen's terms. She was testing heavy metal in waters and its effect on plants.

Arabidopsis thaliana is the scientific name for several local plants. She used Thale Cress has the plant to do her testing.