Ochre Sea Star Research & Storybook – Dafne Cruz Rodriguez, 16

I was inspired to do a research/storytelling about sea stars because I had gone to the beach during the weekend with my family and now sea stars remind me of how relaxed I was because with the pandemic I was very stressed out about school, college applications, and much more. In a way, my project ties into the concept of conservation and any type of keystone species, because as humans we have the tendency to want to discover strange things we see, but nature should be observed and if taken it should take care of and be used for research purposes. I was sort of stuck for a while because there wasn’t something that “clicked” in my head, but once I had seen the sea stars, I was motivated to research a species which also had also ties into other topics such storytelling, photography, and preservation/conservation. Also I spent most of the time doing the children’s book and it was the most enjoyable. For some reason, if  my 1st plan of becoming a lawyer in life doesn’t become a reality, I would love to become a teacher because I have done so much volunteering around children and I love helping others understand new skills or concepts. Going into TeenNat I was not so sure of what to expect but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and it inspired me to possibly follow a career path related to science, which is not my strong subject in school.

Hear Dafne share all about the ochre sea star, and glimpse her storybook here: