Instructions:

Instructions and Scoring

Please rank each presentation in each category on a scale of 1‐5

(1/2 point increments are ok); 1 = poor and 5 = excellent.

After judges have completed rankings, compare scores and choose

1 Best Environmental Project Winner and 1 Honorable Mention.

Ranking:

Environmental Science Research Poster Presentations follow the traditional scientific method.

Instructions and Scoring

(1) W = Winner and (1) HM = Honorable Mention

Example below:

Jonathan Micsky, Brianna Pennington, Caylee Jayne, and Kyle Wingard  

** Greenville Sr High School

Adviser(s): Mark Russell

Quantifying the Health of the Middle Shenango River. A Multi-year Study of Riffle Fish Assemblages, Elemental Bed Sediment Analysis, and Water Chemistry,  2015-2017

During the summer of 2017, we surveyed 9 riffle sites in the Middle Shenango River, and 3 riffle sites in the Little Shenango River, Pennsylvania.  At each site, riffle fish were surveyed using pulsed DC electrofishing equipment, and following the established USGS protocols, composite river bed sediment samples were collected using a stainless dredge.  Water chemistry parameters included dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, pH, temperature, and conductivity and all results were within acceptable ranges.  Fish diversity was calculated using Simpson’s index of diversity (1-D), and the 9 sites on the Middle Shenango had an average value of 0.881, while he Little Shenango River yielded an average of 0.88.  All 22 parameters for the elemental biosolids analysis of the bed sediment returned results within the acceptable range.  Results were then compared with, and combined with data from 9 sites that we had surveyed in 2015.   Of the 9 sites in the Middle Shenango River, we found 6 had no significant difference in fish populations, when comparing 2015 with 2017 (paired t-Test).  The Halfway Road site (P=0.023, N=53), Porter Bridge site (P=0.015, N=55), and Riverside Park site (P=0.003, N=65), showed a significant difference in population.