The model organisms we used this summer were Halobacteria. They are an ideal species to look at because their growth is easy to measure with a spectrophotometer simply using OD600 and they show a clear phenotypic change when their environment is perturbed. We tested everything from Halo growth, to their color change, to their ideal environment. Our main focus was optimizing the final procedure for the Ecological Impact on Gene Networks module so it could be more applicable in the average high school classroom. From these investigations, we learned basic lab technique and got to work with a variety of instruments. Here you will find our experiments including our hypothesis, procedures, and results.