Support Mariner Marine Science Students

We are the Marine Science Club at Mariner High School in Everett, Washington. The purpose of the club is to expand extracurricular science opportunities for students through genuine research experiences. The exciting and fun times we share inside and outside the lab are the result of contributions from people like you. With your support, not only can we continue our research projects, but we can continue the student experiences and propel student aspirations. Students here have dreams in diverse fields of science, such as healthcare, medical and scientific research, bioengineering, and more. Your help would not only assist in student discoveries of marine species, but most importantly, be a helping hand in making student dreams a reality.

In this project and in collaboration with marine biologists and geneticists, we investigate the genetic and morphometric variation in inconspicuous organisms of the Salish Sea such as forage fish, shore crabs, beach hoppers, nudibranchs, and snails. The Mariner Marine Science Club has a long-term goal to produce a multi-species genetic profile of Salish Sea organisms while introducing students to the practice of science, genetics, laboratory skills, and marine resource conservation.

Students engage across all aspects of the research, beginning with field work and collection of samples, then students are immersed in laboratory practices such as micropippetting, DNA isolation, gel electrophoresis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of microsatellite DNA sequences, and data collection using a capillary electrophoresis genetic analyzer. Further, students also learn to analyze and score data, which is used to produce a published research paper.

Our work is completely funded through fundraising. We are asking for your help to build student experiences by funding the purchase of supplies needed to conduct our research. Thank you for helping make our dreams a reality.

This is a continuation of last year's fundraiser because we did not meet our goals and we are going to start a new project next year. The $6,000 that we raised in our go fund me account last year was enough for us to wrap up the research on the shiner perch.

This year's fundraiser is focused on the future and new projects. We will need substantial funding of $15,000 over the next few years to develop new genetic markers for our future organisms.

Thank you for your support,

Akiesha, Allison, Coree, Emmett, Éowyn, Esther, Jasmine, Jazzy, Johnny, Jon, Leslie, Melli, Rin, Tasmeen, Salma Valerie, Vincent, Victory, and Valeria