Final Presentation Done!

Today I gave my final presentation. It's a HUGE relief to have that out of the way, and I think it went really well. I wasn't that nervous going into it. My only consern was that it would be really boring for my audience. Really, how many people do you know that actually enjoy hearing about wetlands? But, I got some really good feedback.

My presentation set up was basically as follows:
-Wetland Introduction
-How I picked my topic
-My learning experience at VIMS
-Teaching the 7th grade for my application
-Quit wetland "game" with Swedish Fish prizes
-Short talk about Port Isobel
-Questions

Then, I was finished. It went pretty smoothly through out. I never felt stuck and didn't forget to say anything major. I really loved doing what I did, so I felt I could have gone on forever. So, that definitely wasn't a problem.

Specifically, one thing that I thought went really well was the wetland game. I was able to take a break from constant talking and had some audience interaction. Also, at the end, the questions I was asked were all really good. I thought it was a great sign and it showed that people were actually paying attention. When I was finished, my teacher panel and several students gave me a lot of complements on my presentation.

Now, I just need to finish up my written document, get everything together for the showing of all of the exhibits next week, then, I'll be off to Port Isobel!

My Application

For the main part of my application I taught the 7th grade at my school. I did my presentation around the following four questions.

Traits: What makes a wetland a wetland?
Locations: Where can you find wetlands?
Animals: What types of animals live in wetlands?
Importance: What makes wetlands important?

I think overall it went really well. I had fun just getting to connect to the kids and talk about what I love. I taught three classes of them and each of them were very different. As expected, it got easier as I went along. The first class, I struggled a little bit. But, the second and third were a breeze.

I got more from the experience than I expected. I thought it would be ok teaching and, I was a little nervous. But, I learned a lot. I had to get comfortable in the middle of class, and in the end, I was. I figured out what worked and what didn't. And, I got to get to know a lot of the kids that I will be going to Port Isabel with in a few weeks.

Some Pictures From My Learning Experience

Here are a few pictures from my experience at VIMS this summer.


VIMS, as seen from the York River










Small crab viewed through microscope on student science cruise









Polychaete viewed through microscope also on student science cruise









Box core sampling tool on student science cruise











Loading up the truck on our way to my study site on the Patuxent










My mentor, Dr. Rochelle Seitz, getting a core sample at one of our sites on the Patuxent River










Using a push core at one of the Patuxent River study sites











Sorting through a suction sample at the study site

It's been a while...

I haven't posted in a while so I guess I'll give a run down of my senior project thus far and where it's going.

The learning experience, of course, is done and out of the way. Which means what's left is the application, the written doc, and the final presentation.

For my application I have a two part-er. First, I will go and teach Mr. Hutton's 7th grade class about Marine Invertebrates. I have a book of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's curriculum and am about to start drafting my lesson plan. Something that I think would be great to do is to have some Invertebrate examples for the kids to see while I teach. Ideally, I could set up a mini-ecosystem with the animals living in something similar to their natural environment and base my lessons around that.

Then, it's the fun part. I will go with the class with them on their trip to Port Isabel. While on the trip, I will be able to show them the habitat of the inverts and go further into why the conservation and care of these animals is so important.

The written doc will be my finalized lesson plan, and my presentation... well I still have some work to do there. But, again if I could have some live samples, that would be pretty great.

Learning Experience- VIMS journals

My learning experience this summer was a four week Governor's School where I worked at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. While there I wrote a journal for every work day just talking briefly about what I had done at VIMS. I am really glad I wrote them and looking back it is cool to read them again.

June 23, 2008

The first day was mostly just an introduction to VIMS. It was moderately painless, but I was anxious to actually get started. The best part was probably going out on a boat for a quick ride and we reviewed some things like how to tell if the tides are coming and going and safety skills. After lunch I met with my mentor, Rochelle Seitz. We discussed my project a bit and worked on the mentorship contract. It was exciting to see how I’d be spending the month. Then, we went down to the docks to prepare for the next days trip on the Bay Eagle.

June 24, 2008

On Tuesday I got to go on a trip down to the mouth of the York River then up away from the bay collecting samples and testing the water. It was actually an amazing experience. I was with a group of college juniors and seniors, which was kind of intimidating at first, but turned out really well. It was good working with such a large group, collecting information and really getting to be out in the field. We checked the salinity, the depth, and the temperature to find any halo, thermo, and picnoclines. Also, we used a net that trailed behind the boat to catch zooplankton (mostly Ctenophores). Also, the plankton trawl measured the volume of water that went through and the biomass of the ctenophores so we were able to see the density of the comb jelly population and then see how it increase as we headed up river. Also, we looked at the copepods that were caught in the net as well and could see the top-down relationship between them and the ctenophores. (plus I ate a ctenophore)

While the zooplankton trawl gathered organisms in the water column we used a box core to sample from the bottom sediment. We sorted through what we collected and identified a large variety of worms and some clams, as well as getting to check them out under the microscope. This was a really cool opportunity for me and I feel like I learned a lot. Also, we were able to use an otter trawl and catch a huge amount of fish, jellies, crabs, and other random organisms. I really liked this and being able to get my hands dirty counting and sorting the blue crabs and other animals.

Just over all, it was a great day and would do it again anytime. I feel like I learned so much and got to spend quality time with professionals and others that are a little further along in pursuing a career in marine science.

June 25, 2008

On the third day I didn’t do all that much. We prepared to leave for the field to do research on the Patuxent (as in we loaded up the truck and got all the tools we needed as well as making plans on how to get to sites in the best possible way). Other than that, I just sorted samples. We left around two and drove to Soloman’s Island. It wasn’t a bad drive; I just slept the whole time. Then we got settled in, went to dinner, and did some more minor preparations. It was pretty fun. I talked a lot with Cassie (grad student), Sarah (college intern), and Rochelle (my mentor) and it was really good to be able to hear how they got where they are and their future plans.

June 26, 2008

The day in the field went pretty well. We collected data from all 12 sites. We were pretty successful with the location and only ran into a couple of problems evolving water depth and other small geographic problems. It was cool being able to go hands on into field research and being able to see how things are done and what is used.

June 27, 2008

Once we were done returning all the different tools and things we used on our trip, Friday was mostly sorting. We spent the first half of the day finishing up the blue crab sorting before we were able to sort the benthic samples for my project. Sorting is sort of a numbing job, just sitting forever in one place separating tiny pebbles from tiny invertebrates. It was a bit easier though knowing that what I was doing was going towards my results for my projects. Other than sorting, I didn’t really do that much.

June 30, 2008

Monday again was mostly sorting. We got through five more site’s samples. It was a really draining day. My back was killing me my eyes were strained, but we got a lot of the 3 mm samples done so that was good. I feel like it is giving me a realistic depiction of what the marine science field is like, not just going out in boats and collecting samples. There is a lot of tedious counting, sorting, and organizing. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but it is making becoming a marine biologist, seem more possible and less like a childhood career dream.

July 1, 2008

Tuesday was another long day in the lab. We finished all but two of the samples and I got a chance to meet with Rochelle to talk about my project. She straightened out a couple of things so I felt better prepared to have my rough draft ready for Thursday. Also, Cassie, Sarah, and I sat and talked about what we are going to do about getting the predator samples. We discussed some different methods and settled on the idea of staying up in Maryland Sunday night and getting the data on Monday.

July 2, 2008

On Tuesday we finally finish the 3 mm samples. That just meant that we still had the 500 μm samples to go through and identify and take the biomasses of all of the organisms found. Also, we did more work to analyze the sediments. Everything is going really well. I don’t want to write my paper, but I have no issues and of course I am going to do it. Cassie is sort of becoming my sub-mentor which is pretty cool. She knows a lot about all this stuff and has been really willing to help out with what ever questions I had. (She was helping a bit with my paper)

July 3, 2008

Thursday was a pretty chill day in the lab. There wasn’t a ton to do. First I help Cassie finish up the sediments and did some mild IDing. I am learning a bit about the differences in clams and becoming more familiar with the names. Other than that I just worked on my paper. I talked a little bit with Cassie and Rochelle and they both gave me some more pointers. That was pretty much it though.

July 7, 2008

Monday in the lab was mostly IDing and sorting. I started to really get the different bivalves down. First though, I went out and helped Seth take some samples just out by the docks for his project. It was a good break from the lab and when I was done I went back to my own. Some of the samples took a really long time (having over 200 Gemma gemmas) but they were manageable. Besides that, not too much happened. I was a little bummed to find out that my day in the field would be pushed back again, but it’s alright. There was still plenty to do. I helped Katelyn (the summer aid) with some really terrible, obviously hypoxic samples those were pretty terrible…

July 8, 2008

On Tuesday, I IDed and measured. That was pretty much it. It wasn’t fun work, but it was rewarding to see the results of my study. One jar took over three hours and Cassie had to finish it. After lunch, I went back and did some more until there was just a little bit of time left and I sorted some of Seth’s project with Russ.

July 9, 2008

On Wednesday we finished IDing and measuring the bivalves. Now I just need to get the data into a legible form so I can use it… Then, I went and saw a PHD dissertation presentation. It was interesting to see someone in there final stages of getting their PHD. After that I just helped out. There wasn’t a lot to do, but I talked to Rochelle about some project stuff. That’s all.

July 10, 2008

Thursday was a really long day. I got there and worked a little bit on my paper then I went and sort of helped Seth with his project. I didn’t do a lot, but I felt mildly useful. Then I went out with some VIMS people to help get some suction samples of blue crabs in the eel grass. There was a disgusting amount of jelly fish and I kept getting stung. It wasn’t really fun but more field experience I guess.

July 11, 2008

Friday was a really lazy day. Cassie didn’t come in, and Katie wasn’t there, but Sarah and I tried to identify the polychaetes. It was really difficult and we didn’t get very far but I learned a little bit about identification and how difficult it is without an expert in the area. After that, I didn’t have much to do, so I just went to the beach and read.

July 14, 2008

For the first half of Monday, I just looked at what I had for my presentation and tried to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, but I didn’t really know, so it was difficult. I knew I was supposed to be doing something with the statistic software I had installed on my computer but I didn’t even know what my goals were so I was really stuck. Later I went over to Taylor and Lindsey’s office and Kersey was really willing to help me, which was really cool of him, but since I didn’t know why I was doing what he was trying to show me I didn’t really understand any of it. But it did give me a decent start and I felt a little bit better when it was explained again

July 15, 2008

Tuesday was pretty much souly dedicated to my graphs and statistics. It took the entire day, but I got all the graphs and P values and all of that DONE. It was glorious. I got a lot of help from everyone felt like 345234x better about my project than the day before.