Biofouling: It’s a sticky situation
George Barlow’s high school science students at East Valley High School in Spokane, WA, immersed themselves in the scientific method during a yearlong project in which they created and tested environmentally friendly materials to remove barnacles from ship hulls, which ends up costing the U.S. Navy millions of dollars each year in fuel costs. Students began initial background testing to create antifouling substances, then designed an experiment to test them in aquariums with barnacles and mussels.
Barlow and his co-applicant, Tim Severns, received a $5,000 Student Achievement grant from the NEA Foundation to complete this project.
