Science Heroes Home Page > Mara Rosenberg

Mara Rosenberg

OMSI: Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

MR: I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, although I spent one year living in Israel when my family took a sabbatical there.

OMSI: What three words best describe you?

MR: Focused, happy, athletic.

OMSI: Please tell us about a mentor or teacher who helped to inspire your interest in science.

MR: Mrs. Migaki is my middle school science teacher. She has inspired my interest in science research.

OMSI: Describe a difficult situation that you were in and how you handled it.

MR: We lived overseas one year. The school system was very different from the US (quite a bit more chaotic) and only one person spoke English. But, I learned to adapt and enjoy the experience.

OMSI: How do you feel about the current state of science education in the U.S.?

MR: If my experience is any indication, science education is thriving.

OMSI: What is your favorite class this year?

MR: Science.

OMSI: What do you like to do in your free time?

MR: I do competitive gymnastics, training at least 9 hours a week, not including meets. I also ride horses each week and do a lot of cross-country skiing in the winter. I also like to read.

OMSI: Please tell us about your science fair project. How did you come up with the idea for your project? How did you go about researching and building your project? What was it like to participate in the science fair, and what do you remember most from the fair?

MR: I worked with two others on the project. About one year ago, our science teacher told us she had cloned frogs by cutting frog eggs in half during the blastula stage, or when the eggs are about two days old. When we heard about the fair, the idea became our research project. In the beginning, we tried to obtain frog eggs from pet stores. We finally found a source. Meanwhile we were researching the lifecycle of frogs. When the frog eggs arrived, we cut them in half using a scalpel under the microscope. We watched their development in relation to the development of eggs that had not been spliced. I really enjoyed the fair. It was particularly interesting to see all the different projects that people worked on. It was an excellent experience.

OMSI: If you were to build your science fair project again, would you do anything differently?

MR: We might try adding different chemicals to the water to increase the development of the frogs. We might also try using different eggs, besides frogs, to clone. I would look into marketing our project better to the judges. Perhaps a simple chart to interpret the data might have helped. I thought that there would be a greater opportunity to discuss the project with different judges, but only one judge spoke to our group and that disappointed us.