last week in lab

Yaaayyy!! There is nothing I love more than having two tests the week before finals….. (crickets chirping). Well, now that those are over time to start cramming for finals. Words cannot express how thankful I am to not have any of my finals on the same day. Presentations for our semester projects are tomorrow (Friday) and I’m bummed out that I won’t have an awesome project to talk about L. My presentation will be short and bitter, oh I mean sweet… So tonight I will be working on my power point presentation so everyone doesn’t make me look bad… lol lol!! I’m excited to see some of the projects from my fellow S-STEM Peps! Good luck everyone!!  

 

 

"Its the Final Count Dowwwnn!!"

Monday I went to the lab to review the results of the different cleaners I tested on a table top last Friday. The following were used as controls: a non-cleaned portion, dust off with dry paper towel, wiped with tap water and distilled water. The following cleaners were used to test for their effectiveness: Hydrogen Peroxide, 70% isopropyl alcohol, Witch Hazel, Anti-bacteria Windex, Wet Ones, Lysol wipes, Vinegar, At Home cleaner. In order to measure their effectiveness each colony on each contact plate were analyzed. According to my results the most effective cleaner was a tie between the Lysol wipes and the hydrogen peroxide

This is a picture of the contact plate that was sampled on the unclean portion of the table.

Well... so much for that! PLAN B!

Monday I went out to Rio Salado to pick up the traps I most recently set and sure enough… all nine of them were gone. Each trap was clearly labeled and that it was for experimental purposes as property of Phoenix College. The weather has been decent lately so I don’t think it was from change in water levels or anything environmental but there is a number of things that could have happened to them. I met up with Matt briefly to discuss an alternative project and we decided that I will be testing different cleaners and determining how effectiveness. This should be a good project because one, no-one can steal it, and two, there will be distinct results which will be helpful for my final presentation. So on Wednesday I started making TSA plates and I will start testing different surfaces ASAP!

ROUGH DRAFT...

My main focus this week was to get my rough draft done. As much as I “love” writing papers I know I will be glad that a majority of it is already done at the end of the semester, especially when it hits crunch time for finals in my other classes. The data I’m going to use in the analysis section is going to be from the trap I most recently collected but I will not use it in my final paper. Friday will be two weeks that the new traps have been out and I spoke with Matt on Wednesday decided to head out and start retrieving my other traps on Monday. 

First One Down

Nine new traps were set at the same location at Rio Salado, and on Monday I went down to retrieve one of my traps I set earlier this semester. (Thankfully all of the new ones were still there). To retrieve the traps I brought a bucket with me and added a bit of pond water to it so the pack wouldn’t dry out. Then I brought it into the lab to label it and separate into plastic bags. Wednesday I was finally able to go through the first one and so far I have identified dragonflies, mayflies, snails, and a very high amount of scuds. Scuds are crustaceans which are a close relative of crayfish and shrimp. I’m going to finish going through the second half of the trap on Friday.

Decided on Monday

I decided to have my new leaf packs set before I pull the other two so I have plenty of time to dissect them on Monday. As of right now there is two placed at Rio Salado Park off of Central and each trap has two bags tied together, so I essentially have four to go through. Wednesday I Filled 9 more with the same dried sycamore leaves from the tree at Phoenix College over by the green house. Josh and I spoke and we’re thinking of using stakes to anchor the traps down rather than relying on a stray tree branch that might break off. Also if I do this I won’t have to tie the traps together, so if I lose one trap I’m not essentially losing two.

No Bugs, No Glory... Can't Wait to Find Out!!

I didn’t do a blog post the week before spring break… So I’m on here to update everyone on my progress. Fortunately, two of the three leaf pack traps I placed are intact at Rio Salado Park. After the field trip on Friday (tomorrow) I am going to prepare some more traps with sycamore leaves from Phoenix College to hopefully set this weekend (maybe I will find someone to help me). It has been about four weeks since I placed them so I need to retrieve them sometime next week! I will keep everyone posted! Thankfully there is still enough time in the semester to continue placing traps so I can come up with as much data as possible. I wasn’t able to actually do a successful one last semester so this should be exciting. In the meantime I’m going to quiz myself on my aquatic macroinvertebrate knowledge so I’m ready for when pull them next week.