Texas 7th-grader Caden Pohlkamp built an underwater robot to study 12 neighborhood ponds. His surprising discovery about fountains and healthier water

A seventh-grade student in Texas has turned a fascination with marine life into an unusual science project. He has built his own remote-operated underwater vehicle to investigate the health of neighborhood retention ponds.

Caden Terence Pohlkamp, a seventh-grader from Brookside Intermediate School in Friendswood, Texas, studied 12 retention ponds in his community as part of his research project. His work earned him a place among the finalists of the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, according to the Society for Science.

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The young researcher wanted to answer a question that was closely connected to his surroundings: If communities are going to build man-made ponds to manage stormwater, could those same ponds also be designed to better support wildlife? His answer involved a small underwater robot, water samples and a detailed look at what was happening beneath the surface.

Why Caden started studying neighbourhood ponds

Living near the Gulf of Mexico, Caden became interested in how communities deal with flooding caused by extreme weather.

Retention ponds play an important role in many communities because they collect and control stormwater during heavy rainfall. But Caden wondered whether these engineered ponds could do more than simply hold excess water.

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“If our community is going to build retention ponds, I wanted to know the optimal way to design them to provide suitable habitats for the local marine life I am passionate about,” he was quoted as saying.

That question became the starting point for his science project, titled “Is More Green Better? Does Littoral Vegetation Enhance Habitat Suitability of Local Retention Ponds?”

He built an underwater robot himself

Rather than simply collecting water from the edge of a pond, Caden designed a small remote-operated vehicle, or ROV, that could travel down to the bottom. The robot allowed him to collect water samples from different parts of retention ponds, giving him a closer look at conditions that cannot easily be studied from the surface.

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Caden eventually examined 12 ponds in his community. His analysis included measurements such as pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, temperature, phosphate and the amount of oxygen consumed by organisms living in the water. Together, those measurements helped him assess how suitable the ponds were for supporting aquatic life.

His research found an ideal amount of vegetation

One of the most interesting findings from Caden's research involved vegetation around the edges of retention ponds. His results suggested that the most suitable ponds had 15% to 30% non-grass vegetation around their edges. That vegetation can provide habitat and potentially make the ponds more useful for local wildlife.

But vegetation was not the only factor that stood out.

Caden also found that ponds with fountains tended to have higher levels of dissolved oxygen. Since aquatic organisms depend on oxygen in the water, better oxygenation can make those ponds more hospitable to life.

By comparison, ponds without fountains showed measurements suggesting greater amounts of algae, which can consume oxygen in the water.

A seventh-grader's research could help communities

What makes Caden's project particularly interesting is that it goes beyond a classroom experiment. His findings could potentially help communities think about how retention ponds are designed and maintained. Caden shared his observations with local officials so they could identify ponds with unhealthy conditions and consider possible action.

The project also demonstrates how a question about a local environmental problem can turn into hands-on scientific research.

Instead of simply reading about water quality, Caden built equipment, collected samples and compared measurements from multiple ponds.

His interest in marine life started when he was five

Caden's fascination with aquatic life began years before the pond project. “When I was five years old, my mom took me to Sea World and I fell in love with marine life,” he says.

That interest has continued to shape his activities. He takes care of guinea pigs and a 10-gallon aquarium, participates in the Texas A&M Galveston Sea Camp and volunteers at local beach cleanups.

He also has ambitions that extend well beyond middle school. Caden hopes to become a marine veterinarian and biologist, combining his interest in animals with his passion for the ocean.