Our team has selected the National Critical Technology Category of Environmental Quality with the technical application of Environmental Monitoring Sensors.  Our desire is to research the application and adaptation of light sensoring devices to help resolve the real-world problem of the effects of lighting pollution on the ecosystem management of endangered sea turtles.

Our team has selected this technology standard because of our interest in the local issue of nesting sea turtles.  Artificial light from streetlights and hotels has resulted in the disorientation and death of hatchlings that depend on moonlight to guide them back to the ocean.  With the community embroiled in a controversy over these endangered species, several actions have been taken to protect them.  The situation has yet to be resolved.

Our research will concentrate on sea turtles, legal issues impacting their environment, and the technology of light sensoring devices.  This, in turn, will hopefully lead us to a practical, commercially viable solution to this critical issue.

The Administration of Mainland High School has given its permission for our project's homepage to be hosted at the address http://mainland.cctt.org/istf  for the duration of this competition until the end of March, 1999.