Meet Ishanvi, Class 6 student using science to protect dolphins from human harm

A school science project has turned into a bigger lesson in wildlife protection. Virginia student Ishanvi Sakharpe was named a 2026 Virginia State Merit Winner for Dolphin Guard. The project shows how school science can address risks to marine wildlife. Meet the Virginia student using science and problem-solving to tackle a real-world marine threat.Meet Ishanvi, Class 6 student using science to protect dolphins from human harm (Photo: Website/youngscientistlab/pexels)A question about how humans share the ocean with wildlife has led Virginia student Ishanvi Sakharpe to a project called Dolphin Guard. The idea has now earned her recognition as a 2026 Virginia State Merit Winner in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge.Sakharpe, from Virginia Beach, is a student at Old Donation School. Her project stands out because it connects a familiar school subject, science, with a problem that exists well beyond the classroom: how to make marine environments safer for dolphins when human activity is all around them.The Young Scientist Lab lists Dolphin Guard as Sakharpe’s award-winning project.WHEN A SCIENCE PROJECT MEETS THE OCEANDolphins share their marine habitats with boats, fishing activity and other forms of human movement. Those interactions can sometimes put marine animals at risk. That is where Sakharpe’s project comes in. Dolphin Guard is aimed at addressing potentially dangerous encounters between dolphins and human activity in marine environments.The larger idea is simple: instead of waiting for an animal to be harmed, can science help identify or reduce a danger before it becomes a serious problem? That question gives the project a practical purpose. It also shows why school-level science projects can be more than experiments designed simply to earn marks.FROM CURIOSITY TO COMPETITIONSakharpe’s recognition came through the 2026 3M Young Scientist Challenge, a national competition for middle-school students in the United States.According to Young Scientist Lab, students enter by submitting a short video explaining a new invention or solution that could address an everyday problem affecting them, their communities or the wider population.The competition assesses entries on creativity, scientific knowledge, persuasiveness and communication, and overall presentation. The 2026 challenge opened in January and the State Merit Winners were announced in June.Sakharpe’s selection as Virginia’s State Merit Winner puts Dolphin Guard among the projects recognised through this year’s programme.SCIENCE IS NOT HER ONLY STRENGTHHer interest in problem-solving is not limited to environmental science.Math Kangaroo records show Sakharpe has been recognised in mathematics competitions over several years. In 2025, she was part of The Kangaroo Pi-oneers, an Old Donation School team that won the Grade 6 national gold medal in the Math Kangaroo Team Competition.She has also appeared in Math Kangaroo’s national and state results as an individual competitor.That combination of mathematics and science gives her story an interesting thread: the same skills, logical thinking, curiosity and problem-solving, can be applied to very different challenges.For Sakharpe, those skills have now been directed towards dolphins and the wider question of how technology can help humans share the planet more safely with wildlife.And that may be the most interesting part of Dolphin Guard: it starts with a school student noticing a real-world problem and asking what science can do about it.- EndsPublished By: Princy ShuklaPublished On: Sep 2, 2026 08:05 IST