​Secondary School students studied marine coastal environments through Nanyang Research Programme Junior

The Nanyang Research Programme Junior (NRPjr) is part of NTU’s talent outreach effort, aiming to create opportunities for secondary school students in local Integrated Programme Schools to engage in research projects with NTU faculty. Six students from Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) got the opportunity to do a study under the supervision of ASE lecturer Dr Sylvain Rigaud. Through investigating marine microorganisms, they initiated a study to understand how dense urbanization has impacted coastal marine environments in Singapore. During the 8-month long research project the students became familiar with the diverse group of tiny marine microorganisms called foraminifers. Despite their small size, foraminifers are important both as a food source for larger marine organisms and as environmental indicators.

To report their findings, the students wrote a research paper. Congratulations to all six students, who all received silver (4) or bronze (2) participation awards.