Collin composes and plays music on the piano. He especially likes to perform in front of an audience. He'd like to become a marine scientist someday because "life started in the ocean and now future life on our planet may depend on how well we take care of the oceans."
Harmful algal blooms called red tides are a serious problem along many coasts worldwide. They particularly affect the eastern Gulf of Mexico along the coast of Florida, where Collin lives. He learned that a key type of red tide algae, Karenia brevis, adsorbs inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus in the ocean. He wondered whether human waste and farm runoff that contribute organic nitrogen and phosphorus might also contribute to algal blooms. He hypothesized the K. brevis would be able to adsorb such organic compounds and maintain growth rates and cell concentrations equal to those occurring naturally.
Collin prepared four cultures of K. brevis. Two control cultures contained inorganic forms of nitrogen and phosphorus. In a third culture, Collin substituted organic nitrogen, and in the fourth, organic phosphorus. He measured cell counts at the start of the experiment and then periodically for 20 days. The final count showed that cell concentrations grew by the same rate in all four cultures, indicating K. brevis was using the organic forms of nitrogen and phosphorus.
