Project:

Comparison of Plants in the Gowanus Canal

Students:

Andy Lin, Erik Interiano, Mirrielle Contreras, Ashlyn Mendoza

School:

Sunset Park High School, Brooklyn

Mentors:

Megan Wallner

Abstract:

The Gowanus Canal is one of the most contaminated waterways in America, that is in the process of being cleaned. We will take plant samples from two different sites, one with native planting by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and one untouched site, and compare the differences. We hypothesize that both sites will share common species but the site with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy help will have more native plants. After we collect the samples we’ll do the lab work to identify the species by doing DNA extraction. Then continuing to do PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and gel electrophoresis. At the end we’ll see if our hypothesis was supported by the data.

Poster:

Team samples: