Snail project races to Germany

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Lauren Padden
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Two Incirlik Unit School students were recently selected to compete in the European Region Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Reidstadt, Germany. 

Eighth graders Tristyn Angel, daughter of Lt. Col. Joseph Angel, 728th Air Mobility Squadron commander, and Ashley Hanson, daughter of Col. Jeffrey Hanson, 39th Mission Support Group commander, are the first IUS students to be invited to the competition in two years. 

Ashley and Tristyn, both members of the IUS Science Club, first learned of the JSHS program from Andrea Cull, IUS substitute teacher and science club instructor. 

"The JSHS is supposed to encourage kids to do original research and experimentation in the sciences as opposed to following pre-made science experiments," she said. "They're supposed to design an experiment, come up with their own procedures and do everything from scratch." 

Ashley and Tristyn did just that: they created their own experiment and conducted the research to prove or disprove their hypothesis. 

The girls experiment, named "Adapt to that," focused on how snails adapt to different climates, and required them to collect snails, build different environments for the snails and record their daily actions. 

"During the Christmas break we checked the snails every hour for 12 hours for 10 days on three exhibits," said Ashley. "We had an average to compare them to; we had a hotter climate and a colder climate." 

After gathering all the data, the girls submitted their project and its finding to the JSHS. The judges were impressed and invited them to compete Feb. 25-28 in Germany. 

During the symposium, all students presented the results of their research to their peers, visited science research institutes, attended cultural events and participated in other science and cultural activities. 

"The girls put in a lot of hard work and did a wonderful job with their presentations," said Ms. Jane Slinger, IUS Faculty Sponsor. "They also had a great time attending all the science related events." 

According to Ms. Slinger, the girls received personalized tours at Darmstadt University where they were hosted by electrical and mechanical engineers. 

The competition was fierce and unfortunately Tristyn and Ashley did not advance to the National Competition. 

"Just attending the symposium gave the girls valuable insight into the research and experimentation process," explained Ms. Slinger. "Being exposed to this level of competition as middle school students will put them way ahead of their peers the next time they compete in any science fair competition." 

Ashley definitely believes her trip to the symposium will help her in the future. 

"I feel like I learned a lot more about the judging process and got a lot of ideas from watching other students' presentations."