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A Henrico County high schooler is working with NASA this summer to conduct research on mosquito oviposition and vector-borne disease.
Paxton Calder, a rising senior attending Maggie L. Walker Governor's School, earned a spot in the STEM Enhancement in Earth Science Internship put forth by NASA and the Texas Space Grant Consortium.
“Not many people know, but [NASA] is not all space exploration,” Calder said. “It's also about our own planet and trying to understand the systems here.”
Calder, 17, is part of the Mosquito Mappers team, where she’s setting up mosquito traps in the area and reporting her data back to NASA. She’s found two Toxorhynchites (cannibal mosquitoes) so far, which keep the harmful mosquitoes in check by eating them and lowering their numbers.
“While it may not sound interesting to some, it's actually got some real implications,” Calder said. “Mosquitoes serve as a food source for other organisms, so without mosquitoes there would be a major disruption to the food chain. Mosquitoes can also pollinate some plants, which is vital to our lives.”
After the internship is over, Calder plans to continue her research.
Students who were selected for the SEES program all conducted 60-90 hours of NASA Earth and Space Science research and Python coding to prepare them for the program. Almost 750 applications were received for the internship positions, and 300 were selected this year. The program is virtual this summer due to the pandemic, but students are still conducting research in the field.
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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen's education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.
