How the Gifted/NWF NaGISA Program Can Use Our Talents and Flexibility to Benefit Your Research

The Niceville High School Gifted Program is a rigorous academic course designed to develop advanced skills in teamwork, problem solving, scientific communication, and research. These skills are applied within the Gifted Program through the NaGISA (Natural Geography In-Shore Areas) project, a global marine biodiversity research initiative. The Gifted Program consists of over 90 student researchers who conduct biannual field sampling and laboratory analyses of coastal ecosystems along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Our data collection for beach and dive follows standardized protocols and students also engage in specialties including Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS), water quality analysis, DNA barcoding, microplastics analysis, and ANEMONE sampling. Through a peer-led training system, we maintain and refine our methods to create an environment for operational independence and consistency within the Gifted Program. Our dataset contributes to international marine biodiversity research efforts and our team has participated in many international scientific initiatives such as the 1st and 2nd World Congress of Marine Stations. Recently, the Gifted Program was entrusted to assist with the editing of the World Atlas of Marine Station (WAMS) for increased accuracy and we continue to collaborate with the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England. Despite limitations in funding, technological resources, and advanced taxonomic identification, our program offers a highly motivated and adaptive workforce capable of supporting large scale or labor-intensive research efforts. Our team is particularly well suited for projects in field sampling, specimen processing, and data analysis. We are looking to collaborate with marine research stations and institutions by contributing reliable data collection and research support, in order to further research efforts and provide our students with authentic scientific experience.