Delaney Peterson, a student at Belleview High School in Ocala, Florida, spent three years developing a science project around a deceptively simple question: could discarded glass be transformed into a material suitable for rebuilding oyster habitat? Her project, titled Revolutionising Artificial Reefs: Recycled Foamed Glass Aggregates as a Sustainable Solution for Oyster Habitats, reached its third year in 2026 and earned third place in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), one of the world's largest science competitions for high school students. Peterson also received a special award from the Florida Institute of Technology that included a four-year full-tuition scholarship if she chooses to attend the university full-time. Her research focuses on recycled foamed glass aggregate, a lightweight, porous material made from processed glass, and investigates its potential for use in artificial reef structures. Rather than treating the work as a one-off science fair experiment, Peterson returned to the same research question over three consecutive years, developing the project through successive stages before taking it to the international level.
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