What a final week we had. It was jam packed with lots of fun and bittersweetness. We started off taking a nice walk all around downtown Coos Bay and went into the art gallery. There was a lot of ocean-themed pieces which we all enjoyed very much. The next day we made our way out to Hall Lake and spent the day swimming and chatting. It was so beautiful, even when the fog rolled in and blocked the sun. I would like to go back one day. After the lake we spent some time at Nicks house and we were able to say hello and hang out with all of the horses on the property. They are such funny and curious animals, I have really enjoyed being able to see them. This week I was invited to join Jessie, Aaron, and Maite on the dive boat out at Port Orford. It was such a beautiful day to be on the water. The ocean and wind was so easy going, we were able to go further out than we originally thought and got to hang around some bull kelp forests. I tried to use the ROV, but the remote did not charge properly overnight and died as soon as I launched it. There were no other kinks in the trip besides the ROV malfunction. We even saw a grey whale come into the area and it swam very close to the boat and divers. I am so glad I was able to see what Port Orford is all about before my departure. Rhoda has been so helpful and was able to finish processing the micro plastic data. I spent my time in the lab this week helping process the data as well as doing a lot of cleaning. All of the materials (vials, jars) that I used during this research experience needed to be cleaned before leaving OIMB. I also turned in my final draft of my poster and Nicole printed it out and we finally had our poster session. I was so nervous before the session, but in the end it was really fun and not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Everyone put on their best outfits that they brought with, which was probably my favorite part. Before this, there was not much of a need to dress up nicely so it was nice seeing everyone in their Sunday best. For the last hurrah, we had a potluck at Richards house. He provided some delicious fish, vegetables, and bread rolls. There was also a variety of desserts from Crabby Cakes. We also had the opportunity for Richard to teach us one last thing before we departed OIMB: How to play croquet. I have never played before, I had only ever seen it in the movies. It was really fun and provided a great last bonding experience amongst the REUs. I will deeply miss the cohort, our mentors, and the OIMB campus. It has been such an amazing experience and I can not wait to tell everybody what I have done this summer.
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Time is quickly running out! There is only one more week left of this summers REU program! The weekend began with celebrating Nick’s birthday at 7 Devils. The new location was packed, so the cohort filled the patio at the old pub. We had good food, good cake, and many laughs. Then, Maite and I went back to the lab and stayed until the wee hours of the morning dissecting urchins. I was able to collect the digestive systems of all 18 urchins in one (technically two) days! I felt very accomplished afterwards. The next day, we had our lightning talks and OIMB (Nicole) hosted the Invertebrate Ball. The talks went very well, when I finished my portion, Richard gave me TWO thumbs up! At the Invert Ball, everyone dressed up as an invertebrate and walked down a catwalk to show off their creations. I did not have the time to prepare a well thought out costume, so I went dressed up as the queen of sea stars. I wore all pink and got to use the tiara and wand I won at the arcade in Eugene last weekend as a part of my outfit. Andrew and MaKenzie dressed as bipinnaria and won the prize for least anatomically correct! Go REU’s! After the fun weekend, I completed my last day of volunteering at the CMLC. This time I handled completing the full feed by myself (with some help from Trish, of course)! Flash was being very active again; when I fed him he came up to the top of the tank and took the jar of crab right from me. Look at me, casually feeding octopus on Monday mornings. When I was not feeling well this week, I stayed in my dorm and was able to spend some quality time with my poster. I am so appreciative of Reyn and Nicole for assisting me during this time of the week. Nicole made it possible for me to be apart of the weekly professional development from my room via zoom. If felt like I was still there with everyone, listening to Richard and Mayas comments on our poster rough drafts. I asked Reyn if they would bring some soup to the dorms and they MADE miso soup, one of my favorites as a kid. It was so delicious, it reminded me of SoCal and now I am really looking forward to all of the good food I will eat when I get back home. In the lab, I have been doing a LOT of counting plastics and working on my poster. It is grind time! There is always something that needs to be done or can be improved. I have a lot of samples to collect data from before leaving OIMB, so I have been working on fully processing those. Rhoda has been such a big help with this, and this week she has been able to complete the digestion process of the urchin dissection samples. She is another person I am appreciating a lot this week. Reyn has been very helpful in statistically analyzing and putting my data together. Lastly, I have to mention that for one of the dinners this week, we went to Jordans and made fish tacos! While Maite was diving in Port Orford, she caught and filleted some rockfish and brought it back to eat. It was so delicious. We made some rice, beans, and a tomato-less pico de gallo on the side. Yumm. Wowow! Another week has flown by and now we are heading towards the final weeks of being at OIMB. This past weekend I took another trip up to Eugene with Alondra, Jordan, Maite, and MaKenzie. It was so nice to spend some time in the warm weather. Charleston can be very cold and at times does not feel like summer is currently happening. Taking a break from the thick overcast is what I needed. While in the city, we were able to go to the Saturday Market. It was adorable and I enjoyed seeing people out and about buying/selling fun products. They also had some yummy and diverse food selections. I ordered some jerk chicken and sweet plantains for lunch, very different from the fried fish I am used to eating in Coos Bay. We also made our way to Round1, the arcade. I do not remember the last time I went to an arcade, so it was a lot of fun playing games with friends and winning tickets. At the end, I had enough tickets to win some candy and a little tiara with a matching ring and wand. Upon our return to OIMB, Maite and I had another fun shift at the CMLC where we completed a full feed. This was an exciting day because Flash, the cephalopod was very active (I had never seen him come out of his hiding pot before). I had the opportunity to feed him some crab in a closed jar. He was being silly and kept swimming around the tank, getting close to the food but not completely grabbing it. Eventually he was enticed/hungry enough to actually take the jar from me. He opened it and shoved the crab into his mouth. Watching him eat was very entertaining. I could have watched him swim around the tank ALL day. This week all of the REUs have been preparing our lightning talks for the Oregon high schoolers. We all made short presentations about ourselves, our schools, and our projects. I enjoyed making the little presentation and adding/editing my photos of urchins. I also will talk to them about my educational path I took after high school and how I ended up at this REU program. When I was in high school I definitely did not know what sort of education I wanted to pursue or about programs like this, so I am all for helping inform other students about the REU programs available here at OIMB and across the country. My project this week has consisted of a lot of filtering and using the dissection scope to count microplastics on cellulose filters. Looking for microplastics feels like I am searching/panning for gold, especially since the plastic I am looking for is a very distinctive bright yellow color. I have been collecting lots of data, finally, and inputting it into a google sheet. Reyn taught me how to begin using the statistical program, R. It is a lot of information about something I have never heard of before coming to OIMB. Check in next week for some stories about dissecting urchins, counting more microplastics and all the happenings of the invertebrate ball! |
Annika SullivanHello blog visitors! My name is Annika Sullivan. I am from Agoura Hills, CA and have been studying at Santa Barbara City College for the last 3 years. This fall I will be attending UC Santa Barbara as an Aquatic Biology major. I have always dreamed of living in Oregon, and now I get to do so while conducting marine research at OIMB under Dr. Aaron Galloway and Dr. Reyn Yoshioka in the CTELab! Archives
August 2021
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