For years I tramped up and down the Maine shore, paying little heed to the creatures under the seaweed. It was whales that fascinated me when I was little. I was sure I wanted to grow up to research them, and I couldn't wait to get started. I had hopes that some day orcas would swim into my clam-flat cove—yet I soon learned that that was highly unlikely to happen in Maine. With a lack of whales at my beck and call, I soon turned to seals. They were almost accessible; however, they were still too large to fit into a tank in my backyard. With seals and orcas off the list, I became needy for my research fix. I racked my brain and took a walk to my little cove. No orcas, no seals. The tide was low, and the clam flat's odor filled the autumn air. The blue sky was crystal clear, and the rocks were still warm from the noon sun. I heaved a sigh and kicked off my sneakers. The ledge was warm and felt perfect under my toes. I ran barefoot along the rocks, jumping on stepping-stones across the mud flat to my island. I bent low and picked up one of my periwinkles. I hummed to it as I filled my lungs with the fresh air. Then the circuit was completed. The electricity ran as excitement through my veins. I scrambled back to ask my mom. After some careful rounds of negotiation, the proposed periwinkle laboratory was approved for immediate construction in my basement. It wasn't whales, but my research had begun.

[...]
My Previous Research
I have always had a curiosity for how creatures survive the cold winters of Maine. After some preliminary observations in 2001, I designed an experiment to test periwinkle activity according to water temperature. The experiment was composed of a set of three temperature environments that were maintained at specific temperatures. After observing periwinkles in my basement laboratory for 30 days in 2001, I determined a trend in periwinkle behavior according to the temperature of the water. Periwinkles in cold water were less active than in warm water, and there was an upward turn in periwinkle activity at 4 degrees C. This helped answer a few of my early questions but led to more. By my second year in high school, I was completely enthralled, and I had moved away from the lab to work with periwinkles on the shore. My next questions focused on the physiological differences in populations from different water temperatures. My results showed periwinkles from a cold water temperature site to be smaller (on average) than those from a warmer site. Another trend that I was not expecting to see appeared in my data. It showed that common periwinkles near the low tide line were larger than those near the high tide line. This trend was consistent at all three of the sites I had sampled and led to a completely new focus in my research. I designed a study of morphologic variation in periwinkles as a function of intertidal position. For my study site I chose an exposed island (Jenny Island) in Harpswell, Maine.

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Conclusions
The results of this Jenny Island study show that periwinkle morphology varies significantly according to intertidal position and substrate. These results support my research hypothesis and my previous findings. The periwinkles near the high tide line are on average smaller than those near the low tide line. Periwinkles from tide pool substrates were significantly smaller than periwinkles from any of the other substrates.

This trend is not reported in the literature, and my findings suggest that in order for periwinkle morphology to be effectively compared among sites, the periwinkles' intertidal position and substrate must be taken into account. The experimental design developed in this study seems to provide adequate sample size and control for intertidal position and substrate. It seems to allow periwinkle morphology to be investigated effectively, and I intend to further test this methodology in a follow-up investigation of periwinkle distribution trends.

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