Week nine is here. The culmination of eight weeks of trial, error, frustration, successes, and discoveries have been condensed onto a single poster. After at least five vocabulary and phrasing revisions, and countless minute adjustments, the posters were sent to the printer Monday morning. On Tuesday, Nancy Treneman offered to do a mock presentation with me to practice my delivery and to quiz me on any questions I may be asked. The day of the poster symposium arrived, and to be honest, I was a nervous wreck. I envisioned myself being grilled by everyone who walked by and not knowing the answers to their questions. How wrong I was! Yes, there were questions I could not answer, but that will always be the case, and I was not belittled or depreciated for admitting it. This was an opportunity broadcast my studies. In my poster I showed how I explored my question, which leads to more and more questions, which is the very essence of science: the concerted effort to better understand the world around us. The attendees were not there to test us, they were there to learn about what we had been researching this summer, and to support our work. The nerves quickly wore off and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of sharing my results, thoughts, and enthusiasm. I was fortunate to have friends from Washington drive all the way to Charleston to attend the symposium, making the day even more exceptional. So what were my results? There was no significant difference in numbers of larvae settled or numbers of burrowers on hard wood vs. soft wood, and wood density does not effect the number of burrowers. Initially, I was surprised by my results, but when I started to take variables other than wood density into consideration it started making sense. The less dense wood species (Hemlock, Pine, and Fir), that had the lowest responses, are from coniferous trees which contain more resins and saps than hard woods. It is possible, even with consistent water changes, that these substances a) contaminated the water enough to kill a many of my larvae and/or b) deterred them from burrowing into the wood. If I were to move forward with this research I would let the wood soak in running seawater for at least a week before exposing the larvae, and I would place all six wood blocks in one container and give the larvae a choice of which wood type to settle on. I am so fortunate to be among this great group of individuals, and to call them my friends. What am I taking away from the nine weeks here at OIMB? Looking back at my first blog post, I set three goals for myself: develop experimentation skills, make connections in the marine science community, and gain confidence in myself as a scientist and researcher. I have positively accomplished each of these, and additionally I have made a handful of lifelong friends. To my mentor, Richard Emlet, Nancy Treneman, program coordinator Maya, and graduate students Nicole and MacKenna I offer my sincerest gratitude. Signing off from OIMB!
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Wow, how is it already the last week of my internship!? Honestly, I feel as if I’ve only been here for, at most, one month. Time flies when you’ve got shipworms to keep you busy. This week has been focused 100% on translating my research into visual form for our poster session next week. Choosing how much, or how little to share on a poster is a challenge. Too many words overwhelms the reader and they loose interest; too little and insufficiently explain your research. Then there are the other fine tunings like colors, alignment, borders, fonts……the list goes on and on! The REU group met this week to critique each other’s poster drafts, which was an exercise in the art of accepting constructive criticism. I am thankful for the suggestions that I received. Knowing that they come from a place of encouragement, not judgement, makes them easier to accept. Criticism is part of life, and part of science, and this is the path that I have chosen for myself so I had better learn how to receive it. Now that my experiment has concluded, the question remaining is: how do I squeeze the most lab experience into my last week? I would like to attempt extracting a juvenile shipworm from one of my test block to see how it has metamorphosed since burrowing. Capturing some microscopic images of it and take detailed notes would feel like a fitting conclusion to the 9 weeks I have spent reading about shipworms, finding them, observing them, and becoming a shipworm enthusiast.
The second run of my experiment took off like a shot! Whereas it took at least six days for larvae to burrow with my first experiment, this second round of larvae got to it in a mere 72 hours! Not only were the larvae quicker to burrow, the number of burrowing individuals has been much higher. While all of this is excellent for data collection, it has made the task of observing and classifying behavior of many larvae, on 36 individual blocks of wood, extremely time consuming. Getting such a high response from my larvae has allowed me to capture some great images and video clips of different classifications of behavior; swimming, crawling, settling, and burrowing. My task this weekend is to sort through to select the images that best convey my observations to use on my research poster, which is due in just over a week! This week we had the opportunity to share our research with the public at the Charleston Marine Life Center. This was a chance to practice the fine art of talking about technical and extremely specific topics to a broad audience. The visitors I spoke with came from all walks of life; local families, international families, young couples, older couples, retired teachers, post-doc researchers, and many more. Tailoring how you convey your research from one individual to another requires tact. More than anything though, I firmly believe that the level of enthusiasm and passion a presenter has for their research is what will engage an audience and hold their attention. Fortunately, my enthusiasm for these strange little creatures is not in short supply! I got so much joy from sharing my knowledge, getting questions that stumped me, and even the wrinkled noses and “ewww”s when someone took a look at an adult shipworm under the dissecting scope. It is a truly unique creature and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to study it.
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AuthorHello, my name is Tiffany Spendiff. I am a third-year marine biology student and unrelenting bivalviaphile. This blog is an account of the successes, lessons, trials, and tribulations of a burgeoning marine scientist. Archives
August 2018
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