After meeting with the 8th grade class that will be working in the White Oak Bayou, several things became clear. First of all, they already have a lot of data after collecting once a week every week for the past several weeks (I think they said 5 or 6 weeks). They also have tons of photos from one of Scott's cameras (almost all of which have deer in them, all of which seemed to have some visible animals). They also have a video that was amusing regarding their project.
So now comes our first interaction: we need to ask them questions. Not just what we want to know, but what do we think they need to know. It became clear that while they have all of this data, they don't seem to know why. They don't seem to know what purpose it will serve. They also don't seem to know what it is that they are measuring (they were checking the turbidity, but they didn't seem to know what that meant, why it was important, or what the units meant).
So, we need questions for them ASAP (coming from the great procrastinator, that must sound funny), because the sooner they get the questions, the sooner they can start looking for the answers and get back to us for the next step in the process. I believe we hope to check in on them Tuesday of next week to see what they have come up with. So comment your questions, please.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Week of February 17
Last week we worked on our data libraries for out Trimble units using Pathfinder. This was the first time for any of us to use the software, but everyone spent some time with it and almost everyone got their data libraries on their Trimble units. Creating a library for species was difficult because I would ideally need to create an attribute row for each species and within the row for each location, list the number of each species identified within the plot. However, that would require me to make many rows which would make it difficult to enter my data for each location. As a compromise I created fields for the dominant species we expect to find as well as five "other" fields to list other species identified. Hopefully there are no more than five "other" species. If there are then I can adjust my library at a later date.
On Friday we had guest speakers from the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health in North Little Rock. It was really great to hear about potential jobs after graduation. Although I intend to go to graduate school in the fall, I will still at some point need to find a job and hearing tips from recent UCA graduates was really informative.
As a class we also made a list of equipment for field work on Friday February 28 when we go out in the field with Allyn. I have added a densiometer to my list of equipment because Dr. Entrekin wants me to also survey density along with richness.
On Friday we had guest speakers from the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health in North Little Rock. It was really great to hear about potential jobs after graduation. Although I intend to go to graduate school in the fall, I will still at some point need to find a job and hearing tips from recent UCA graduates was really informative.
As a class we also made a list of equipment for field work on Friday February 28 when we go out in the field with Allyn. I have added a densiometer to my list of equipment because Dr. Entrekin wants me to also survey density along with richness.
Volunteer with the Arkansas Heritage Commission-great experience!
Why? remannt prairie and savannah has lot of dumped tires
What? pick up tires, clean them, recycle, and learn about the natural history of the site from Arkansas Heritage professionals
What's in it for you? Satisfy your volunteer requirement for this class. Build resume. Do something for the community
When? March 15th from 9am to 4pm. See map below
Interested? Contact Coleman Little at czlittle@uca.edu
Bring: food, water, gloves, wear grubbies
http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/arkansas/placesweprotect/terre-noire.xml
What? pick up tires, clean them, recycle, and learn about the natural history of the site from Arkansas Heritage professionals
What's in it for you? Satisfy your volunteer requirement for this class. Build resume. Do something for the community
When? March 15th from 9am to 4pm. See map below
Interested? Contact Coleman Little at czlittle@uca.edu
Bring: food, water, gloves, wear grubbies
http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/arkansas/placesweprotect/terre-noire.xml
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Week of 17Feb14
Wednesday was spent getting an equipment list together and working on Trimble/Pathfinder. MarySue's instructions are extremely helpful, but students still need time to work through the interfaces and often we have glitches with the units. This exercise requires a full lab period-note for next class. Everyone has a nice data library that should make data collection easier.
Allyn is meeting us in the field next week. Everyone will be collecting some data. Kyle might need to wait till later, but perhaps he could go before the entire crew shows up and get some initial counts?
Kell is going to contact some herpetologists and run his methods by them before he goes out Friday. I think everyone will be up and running after next Friday.
I need to grade the final proposals this coming week and send them to the WOB group.
Allyn is meeting us in the field next week. Everyone will be collecting some data. Kyle might need to wait till later, but perhaps he could go before the entire crew shows up and get some initial counts?
Kell is going to contact some herpetologists and run his methods by them before he goes out Friday. I think everyone will be up and running after next Friday.
I need to grade the final proposals this coming week and send them to the WOB group.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Message from MMM teacher
Hey guys--With a broken wrist and shoulder, communication by email has
been spotty, to say the least...anyway, my students are planning on
clearing the trail as much as possible Monday Feb. 24 and Tuesday, Feb. 25 from 3:40-5:30
both days. We have a parent who will help, but we are hoping Sally can
bring a couple of students to help and also that Bill might be able to
come. I have also invited Jack Stowe from the City of Maumelle to come,
too. Maybe if we have enough man power, we can make some progress.
Bill's wife said they have a brush cutter, and the parent is bringing a
chain saw--my students are bringing rakes and gloves. I think we will
need handsaws and chainsaws and some type of brush cutters and gloves if
you have them.
I have a work day at school Monday, so will be there as soon as we dismiss.
Please let me know if you can possibly come help us--we really want to get this started before it warms up and critters begin to move around! You can contact me using my cell phone ----501-681-0174----rather than calling the school.
I have a work day at school Monday, so will be there as soon as we dismiss.
Please let me know if you can possibly come help us--we really want to get this started before it warms up and critters begin to move around! You can contact me using my cell phone ----501-681-0174----rather than calling the school.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Friday, Feb. 19, 2014 - 1300-1700
White Oak Bayou
Sunny. Rained recently.
Everyone met in the field to establish the four sites. We took handheld GPS units, and collected points at each site. Placing the field cameras and rods was a secondary objective. Finding good, partially inundated locations was easy enough; however, adjusting the camera (once mounted on a tree) to get all of the rod into focus was difficult. We ended up using sticks, and whatever else was available to tilt the units downward. This is probably only a temporary fix.
While in the field, the issue of finite boundaries for each site was raised by myself and others. For several of our projects, data collections must occur within predefined areas, not all of which may be congruent. Dr. Entrekin challenged us to think about how best to situate our plots to accurately quantify the conditions at each site. For me, this means encompassing as much of the gradient between upland and deep water as possible. Kell made a suggestion regarding amphibian collection, proposing that we use a flat board to provide shelter for them, then count whatever crawls underneath.
White Oak Bayou
Sunny. Rained recently.
Everyone met in the field to establish the four sites. We took handheld GPS units, and collected points at each site. Placing the field cameras and rods was a secondary objective. Finding good, partially inundated locations was easy enough; however, adjusting the camera (once mounted on a tree) to get all of the rod into focus was difficult. We ended up using sticks, and whatever else was available to tilt the units downward. This is probably only a temporary fix.
While in the field, the issue of finite boundaries for each site was raised by myself and others. For several of our projects, data collections must occur within predefined areas, not all of which may be congruent. Dr. Entrekin challenged us to think about how best to situate our plots to accurately quantify the conditions at each site. For me, this means encompassing as much of the gradient between upland and deep water as possible. Kell made a suggestion regarding amphibian collection, proposing that we use a flat board to provide shelter for them, then count whatever crawls underneath.
Field Day- Feb 14th
When 13:30-18:00
Who- Practicum Class and Dr. Entrekin
Friday was our first day as a lab to get out and really get dirty in the wetlands. We took out our GPS trimble units that Mary-Sue Passe-Smith provided, as well as very handy instructions. We were able to plot all of our points on the GPS units, except for me. My unit was finicky and I lost all my point because I had to re-set my device. Thankfully I have 6 other lab mates that took the same points, so data is not lost!
As for hydrology, we were able to successfully set up all four cameras and PVC measuring pipe. I had to get a little clever and figure out how to keep the PVC in view of the camera by shoving pieces of stick between the tree and the camera to get a good downward angle. Hopefully this rigging with zip ties will stay in place and the sticks will stay wedged between the tree and camera.
We went out to our control site for the first time today, and at first I was a little worried we might get shot. There were a lot of private property posting signs, but Dr. Entrekin assured us that Scott Owen cleared it with the land owner we would be out on the land. This area was probably the most interesting habitat type. There were a lot of dead/dying trees. Mostly oak, we realized that this now impounded area was not always this wet. The beavers have impounded this area and now it's suffering. Data in this area will be very interesting to analyze!
Overall, even though we were in the field a lot longer than expected it was a great day, with great weather. I was happy to spend a few hours soaking up some Vit D.
On a side note, it was my task to set up a twitter account for the White Oak Bayou and here it is. I think we need to take some pictures of WOB to make our twitter more pretty!
https://twitter.com/WOBPracticum
When 13:30-18:00
Who- Practicum Class and Dr. Entrekin
Friday was our first day as a lab to get out and really get dirty in the wetlands. We took out our GPS trimble units that Mary-Sue Passe-Smith provided, as well as very handy instructions. We were able to plot all of our points on the GPS units, except for me. My unit was finicky and I lost all my point because I had to re-set my device. Thankfully I have 6 other lab mates that took the same points, so data is not lost!
As for hydrology, we were able to successfully set up all four cameras and PVC measuring pipe. I had to get a little clever and figure out how to keep the PVC in view of the camera by shoving pieces of stick between the tree and the camera to get a good downward angle. Hopefully this rigging with zip ties will stay in place and the sticks will stay wedged between the tree and camera.
We went out to our control site for the first time today, and at first I was a little worried we might get shot. There were a lot of private property posting signs, but Dr. Entrekin assured us that Scott Owen cleared it with the land owner we would be out on the land. This area was probably the most interesting habitat type. There were a lot of dead/dying trees. Mostly oak, we realized that this now impounded area was not always this wet. The beavers have impounded this area and now it's suffering. Data in this area will be very interesting to analyze!
Overall, even though we were in the field a lot longer than expected it was a great day, with great weather. I was happy to spend a few hours soaking up some Vit D.
On a side note, it was my task to set up a twitter account for the White Oak Bayou and here it is. I think we need to take some pictures of WOB to make our twitter more pretty!
https://twitter.com/WOBPracticum
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