Jeremy Gorelick

Centerport, New York
9th grade, Harborsfields High
Recently, I arrived at the JASON Project Voyage VI site in Hawaii. It is a very exciting place, full of extremely interesting and dedicated scientists, students, production crew, etc. I was given the great opportunity to accompany Dr. Ken Kaneshiro and Dr. Steve Montgomery out to the rainforest at Kipuka Puaulu, "Bird Park", to collect drosophila. I know that for the average student, reading about the flies is one thing, but to be seeing the flies and collecting them while having an expert scientist explaining them is completely different. To learn about the flies first-hand, and to actually be able to capture flies was a great experience. We made it almost into a contest to see who could collect the most drosophila in a field of beautiful morning-glories.

The next day, I met geneticist/ evolutionary biologist Cheryl Tarr. I was able to personally meet her, and she gave me a great feeling for what the field of genetics and the study of DNA is really about. We were able to run a gel electrophoresis to test the way that the DNA seperates into bands, and I was impressed with the way that scientists can use these to determine the genetic similarities as well as understand the reasons for the morphological differences between the different species of honeycreepers.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, Dr. Steve Mattox took us as a group of all argonauts to the new lava. We were given the opportunity to take new lava samples, and I was at first intimidated by the heat and the danger of lava. But, he talked me through it, and I took the biggest piece of lava. I was so impressed with myself.

Overall, I have to say that at the JASON site, we learn a lot of valuable information about many scientific topics. To be a scientist, one only needs to be interested and curious in all sorts of things.

Jeremy Gorelick
Argonaut

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Gene Carl Feldman (gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9428
Todd Carlo Viola, JASON Foundation for Education (todd@jason.org)