Hello, my name is Emma Smirk
I am a Junior at Princeton High School in the Research Program. 2022 was my first year in the research program. In my free time, I run Cross Country, Winter Track and Spring Track.
Current Research Project
My Research project is working with different types of corn from all different geographical locations around the world. Such as Africa, Spain, the U.S, Puru, and Russia. The Research is investigating how the genetics of corn can show how corn can adapt to climate change. As well as investigating if corn can last better in certain environments by doing a salt water tolerance test on the corn plants. The different types of corncorn plants are being germinated and are also being grown in the greenhouse that our school has.
PCR is being used on the different types of corn, by using the Zymo Research Quick-DNA Plant/Seed Miniprep Kit. There are going to be 1-5 trials of each set of corn that is used to extract DNA depending on how well the seeds germinate. There are 14 different types of corn that are being used in PCR and in the Salt Tolerance test. The Salt Tolerance Test will have 5 seeds for all 14 types of corn.
Princeton High School Research 