Project Blog

After writing our full proposal it really made me reflect on how i think that this project of ours is going to go. I believe that after a certain amount of the chemicals are added into our test tubes of organisms that the chemicals will indeed kill them. One thing that I found to be extremely interesting and unique about this project is that we are mocking something that we feel these dinoflagelettes will experience in their natural habitat, the ocean and the runoff into the ocean.
I feel that our challenges within the experiment are going to include keeping our data based solely off of just the chemicals. We need to be extremely cautious about the way that we treat them with all other features before and during the project. Some things that we are going to need to monitor so closely that are going to serve as a challenge would include, regulating the temperature within the box, assuring that the light they are under is switched on/off at an exact 12 hour schedule as well as doing our best to keep them as undisturbed as possible and giving each of them an equal amount of interaction.
One thing that concerns me is the possibility of the experiment turning in the direction of the dinoflagelettes dying at the first initiation of the chemicals that we put into the test tubes. If this is the case we would know that they can only survive in pure salt water. Although we do know that they will not be able to survive in this form of water to a certain extent I would like to be able to test how MUCH chemicals they can handle to survive.

This is a photo of our bioluminescent dinoflagelettes glowing before they have been exposed to any form of chemicals. 

Chain Factory

The activity we performed as a class initially came off as confusing to me. In the beginning each member of the class was handed a card with a number on it and a sheet that had the corresponding role on the paper. After a short explanation and direction we were set off in the room to do a trial run(I wasn't quite sure what to expect or what I was doing). As each member of the class got used to their "job" the process began to  move faster and faster. By the end of all the chaos in the room we were allowed time to sit down and reflect on what we had just done.
Some observations that I made within the room as this was going on was the person in the room with the role of the "generator" and the person called the "keeper of the plans" were not doing any busy work throughout all the chaos and a few other other people were just standing around watching most of the time as well while the messengers and the assemblers and many others were scrambling around the room. So in other words, they roles each person had differed greatly. While i discussed with my group what we just did we found out that we were acting out the components of a cell and each person in the class was a different representation of a part of the cell. For example, the office was the nucleus and chain we were creating was protein made up of amino acids which was represented by the cubes. In my case I was a assembler which was a ribosome given direction by my messenger which represented a messenger RNA.
I thought that this way of learning such a complex system in this type of way was incredibly helpful. I have attempted to learn this system manny times before and have never made it more than a memorization for my upcoming exam. After this I can honestly feel like I understand it. I think that I feel  much more confident in this because I was able to be in the process myself and have to catch on to what they others were doing around me an then relate it to the actual functions of a cell.

Think Like A Mountain

I felt that this essay had an amazing way of presenting the point that it was getting across. I was confused by the concept of it so I had to read it a couple times to truly understand what they meant by "thinking like a mountain". The beginning of this writing is a creative way of saying how the call of a wolf comes off in a different perspective to all different kinds of people but the mountain is the one who truly sees it how it is. The call of a wolf appeals to dear, to hunters, to cowmen and more all with the  mind set of their own benefit and not how the wolf is benefitting them. This made me feel like my eyes were being opened to a more broad mindset about things. It was presenting me with a new way of thinking "like a mountain" that could be applied to more situations than just this one. As stated above, I was confused by what I was feeling about this article but the more that I read and understood it I would say that the essay just went along with my feelings. The reading did not make me  uncomfortable but it did make me uncomfortable to know that other individuals are blinded by their own needs and important topics they won't take the time to understand.
I really enjoyed the concept of "thinking like a mountain" and it truly makes sense to me. If you think about a topic that has nothing to do with you or give you and personal gain you are going to think of what you think is the most rational in the long run as well as the time being. Although, when dealing with something that could give you personal gain at the time, you aren't going to be thinking about what ways if could change you and others in 10 years from that moment.
When thinking about where I live I would think that the concepts listed in this essay should apply. In my personal opinion it is better to lose out on what you may be desiring for a short time than to have it be permanent in the long run.

Chernoff Faces

The activity that the class participated in called Chernoff faces really taught me a lot about the classification of living things. One main thing that specifically stands out to me is the fact that there were many many individuals in the room and not two of the sane were together the whole time. There are so many varying factors to any individual living thing making it almost  impossible to find a certain amount of categories that could truly fit and be accommodating to all of them.
I think that the chernoff faces activity is a wonderful way to present the difficulty of classification of living things and completely categorize living things into one category alone.

Presque Isle Community Ecology

Parasitism is where one organism benefits and one is harmed but does not die. An example would be a leech, flea or tick.
Commensalism is when one organism benefits and the other is neither harmed not helped. An example would be a bird nesting in a tree.
Mutualism is when both of the organisms benefit. An example would be cattle and grasses.
Intraspecific competition is individuals within a species frequently find there are insufficient resources for everyone to have all he/she needs. An example would be deer in the UP competing for wintering grounds and for food during winter and droughts.
Interspecific competition is when two organisms share a similar niche there will be competition between them. An example of this would be when a species competes for habitat, food or other resources.
Microhabitat: The conditions and organisms in the immediate vicinity of a plant or animal.
The Niche of a camel: A camels habitat includes dry grasslands and deserts. This grazing mammal favors grasses, leaves and shrubs, but it can also stomach thorns and dry vegetation that other herbivores cannot digest. This enables them to survive in areas of sparse vegetation.

Observing "the natch"

My group had a very FUN and educational time while studying our habitat within the small string circle that we placed on a almost random stop on the ground. As we were sent off to find the spot we were going to place our sting we were looking for something more than just a place on ground. After much thought and consideration we decided on the edge of an old rotten out tree trunk. Initially when we put the string down our surface observations were not as exciting as we expected them to be. We saw a lot of dirt, old dead leaves, a little but of moss and a few twigs. Disappointed in our choice of view for the next 45 minutes we began to dig deeper. By the end of our dig, as you said we would be, we were all attached. Deep down under the cover out the old withered up leaves we came across a bright yellow and orange mushroom blooming from the dirt. We saw even more moss but brighter with little tiny plants sprouting from the middle of it that got us interested to learn more about it. Another thing that I found to be the most interesting of all was a large spider that came up from deep down under the dirt. As we moved the large spider around to keep him inside our circle and learn more about him he surprised us with his reaction to his surroundings. The spider shrunk into a ball and tucked all of his legs so close to his body that they were no longer visible. Beside my dislike for spiders, I became very curious. As the spider was all curled up into his ball of "protection" we had flipped him onto his back to discover two very bright round circles on his belly. Overall I thought that the project was very interesting and it truly made me realize how much is going on in just every small foot in nature, even if it is not visible from the surface. 

After our time observing within our sting we began our walk back to find the rest of the class when we came across a deer on the trail. The deer was very thin but very friendly and not frightened by us three excited humans. We trailed behind the deer observing her slow cautious motions. She wandered slowly eating food off of the ground and sticks where she could find it and at times came so close to us we were amazed by her. The deer led us off trail through the woods and of course, we followed. Eventually, we came across what we thought to be a cool fort that someone had once built and decided we just could not turn it down. As the four of us crawled into the fort and sat on the tree stump benches we found that hidden under a piece of bark was a notebook filled with hundreds of journal entries by various people and various topics. I thought that it was amazing to see how people who were comp lee strangers confided in one another and shared their own individual touching stores. Of course, we added to the notebook. 

I really enjoyed this experiment and got a lot of information out of it in so many different forms. I also thought that at the end of the class period it ended up being a great bonding experience for my group and I. 

Bog Walk

I found the entire bog walk to be particularly interesting. Although some parts were more attention drawing than others I really enjoyed the overall experience because I had never gone on a bog walk before. One thing that immediately stood out to me was that besides the paths put in the entire thing was minimally disturbed by man and and full nature experience. I loved the smell as you got further and further down the trail and how the trail became more beaten and overgrown. I also found that if you looked and listened closely there was so much life other than plants surrounding us the whole time. I took note that I had cam across many bumblebees, spiders, flies and one fawn slowly walking through the grass. I thought that it was amazing to be able to see all of these creatures and so many forms of life in their natural habitat. Another thing that really stood out to me was all of the yellow and purple flowers growing almost everywhere you looked. I thought it was really interesting how something so beautiful could play such a strong roll on the environment around it both positive and negatively.