Well my loyal blog readers, this will be my final blog post, as we have reached the end of the REU program. To recap you on recent events, all of the REUs met up at Spruce Ranch, where the South Slough interns and graduate research fellows stay, for a crab boil this past weekend, and I was super excited that my fellow REUs had the opportunity to meet Lara and Jay, the NOAA Davidson fellow and her intern assistant that I have been working with all summer. The crab boil was Sebastian and Colleen’s idea, so of course, the invasive European green crab was the main dish, along with shrimp and corn. I have not really been exposed to seafood that much throughout my life, so this was the first time that I have ever eaten crab. Overall, the food was delicious, and everyone had a really great time. To end the night, I had to say goodbye to Lara and Jay, which made me tear up a little bit because they were great to work with and I will miss them both very much.
Movie Night Update: For our final movie night, we watched Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen with Lindsay Lohan. Personally, I have not watched this movie in a long time, so it was nice to refresh myself on the plot of such a good movie with my REU friends. To make this movie night extra special, we even brought face masks so that we could have a mini spa session during the movie. Making edits and finalizing the details of our posters has been the main theme of this week, so we have all been working tirelessly in preparation for the poster presentation. We finally turned in the final draft of our poster on Tuesday for printing, so in celebration (and as a last hurrah), we went to Hall Lake, which is approximately 11 acres in size and about thirty minutes from Charleston. This gorgeous lake features beautiful sand dunes surrounded by evergreen forests. For the first time this summer, I actually fully got into the water, which was so nice. I simply dipped my toes into the water every other time this summer because the water was too cold, and even though the lake water was chilly, I really enjoyed swimming after such a long time. We also listened to some music and relaxed on the sand, a much needed break from the stress of the poster this week. Overall, I am slightly nervous about the poster presentation, but I am also proud of the work that I have accomplished. Reflecting on the entire program, I can definitely see that I have grown not only as a scientist and a researcher but also as an individual. This program has taught me various scientific and professional skills, ranging from fieldwork to data analysis to how to apply to graduate schools. Additionally, I have branched out and come out of my shell a little, allowing me to meet some really cool people and make some really awesome friends during my time here. Even though I am ecstatic to be heading home soon, saying farewell to my fellow REUs is certainly going to be the most difficult part of the end of this program. Until next time, Chloe Cummins (aka the “Eelgrass Whisperer”, as dubbed by my mentor Ali)
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It is week 8, blog readers! As promised, I have attached some pictures taken at the invertebrate ball this past weekend. The ball was very fun, and as I expected, my favorite part about the event was seeing everyone’s fascinating costumes. Some people put quite a bit of effort and thought into their costumes, and being able to see their invertebrate on full display while they strutted down the “catwalk” was vastly entertaining. Unfortunately, I did not realize that every person who dressed up was required to walk down the catwalk in front of everyone. When it was my turn to parade my jelly costume, I felt a little nervous, but luckily, Sherlyn was there to walk with me since we dressed as the same organism. After costume prizes were given out, all of us left the invert ball early to go hang out at 7 Devils and listen to some live music, which was a great way to end an already amazing night. We also had the CMLC presentation session this past weekend. The ability to communicate information effectively to broad audiences, such as the public, is an essential skill, especially in any scientific field, and this presentation at the CMLC allowed us to further refine our abilities. For my table setup, I made a mock eelgrass meadow out of green streamers and some brown pipe cleaners, and I decorated the meadow with some stickers of various marine organisms. Since I had a plethora of stickers left over, I decided to place them on my table for people to take as they pleased, and seeing younger kids (as well as some adults) get excited about the stickers definitely put a smile on my face. Overall, I really enjoyed sharing my research with the CMLC visitors and as well as hearing and answering their interesting questions.
Regrettably, I have no movie night update for you this week. Victoria went away this weekend to visit some family back in California, so we decided to sit this movie night out. Nevertheless, since this upcoming weekend will be the last weekend of the REU program, we are hoping to have a big movie night planned. This fieldwork week has featured some very early mornings (like out in the field before 5 am early) and, hence, has led to my first ever use of a headlamp. Completing eelgrass monitoring and sampling in the pitch darkness is certainly difficult, but at the same time, there is something eerily beautiful about conducting fieldwork at these sites so early. First of all, I have glimpsed a myriad of organisms active this week that I normally do not see during fieldwork, and we got to experience the sunrise almost every day this week, which was absolutely breathtaking every time. Speaking of organisms observed during fieldwork, I had a startling encounter with a Dungeness crab at Fossil Point on Tuesday. I was almost finished collecting my data from the transect and was reaching the point of exhaustion when suddenly I spotted something massive moving in my peripheral vision. A fairly large Dungeness crab emerged from the tangled mess of eelgrass and algae near me and strolled right beside my leg, suspiciously eyeing me the whole time. I definitely felt more awake after that! In addition, I also spotted an opalescent nudibranch (sea slug), and I even held a jelly (with gloves on of course)! Earlier this week, all of the REUs were required to show the rough draft of their poster and receive constructive feedback on potential things to change. I was somewhat skeptical about showing everyone my poster, as I have been diligently working on it and afraid of receiving negative criticism, but the poster critique went relatively well. The ideas that everyone had for my poster certainly improved the poster as a whole and allowed me to organize the poster in a more interpretable manner. As the poster presentation looms ever closer, I feel more and more excited (as well as anxious and slightly stressed) to share the findings of my summer research. Hello again! Welcome back to Chloe’s Blog: The Neap Tides and Full Week of Lab Work version. This past weekend, Colleen was kind enough to take us (me, Sherlyn, and Victoria) into Coos Bay to get materials for our invertebrate ball costumes. In case you are not familiar with OIMB traditions, the invertebrate ball is an event that OIMB hosts every year during the summer in which students and REUs dress as their favorite invertebrates, and prizes are given out for the best costumes. Since arriving at OIMB and looking back at the blogs of previous REUs, I have heard that the invertebrate ball is really fun, so I am excited that it is coming up this Friday night and that I get to see everyone’s interesting costumes! Sherlyn and I decided to stick with something simple, so we are both going as jellies. Don’t worry though, I will give more updates on the happenings of the invertebrate ball during next week’s blog post.
Anyways, after picking up stuff for our costumes, we decided to check out this thrift shop that Victoria had mentioned. When she went, the store was having a sale where anything that could fit in a large, brown paper bag would only cost $5, no matter how much was in the bag, and when we went to the same store this last weekend, it just so happened that the sale was still continuing. After looking around the shop, we had some luck and ended up filling two bags with clothes and other items; I got a cardigan, a cute sweater, and something small for my mom, which was pretty exciting. Then, later that day, we had our (you guessed it) weekly movie night. This week, we decided to really delve back to our childhood roots and watch Hannah Montana: The Movie. I was obsessed with Hannah Montana when I was younger. I even had a Hannah Montana pen that featured a small plastic TV on the top, and when you clicked a button on the pen, the image on the TV screen changed to a different picture of Hannah. As we were watching the movie, I forgot that it is set in Tennessee, which was pretty cool and kind of bittersweet since Tennessee has such personal meaning to me, and after finishing the movie, I definitely felt my longing for home grow. As I briefly suggested earlier, there were not any good spring low tides this week, so that means no fieldwork and mainly lab/office work, which is a nice respite after the busyness of fieldwork last week. I am in the process of finalizing the details of my poster and updating my previously made graphs with the new data from last week to get them poster ready, especially since I will have to add next week’s data to them after fieldwork each day. Additionally, Ali helped me figure out how to gather metrics on the mature eelgrass seeds that have been released from the flowering shoots we collected, so I spent a few hours this week using calipers to determine the size of the seeds. I have neither seen nor used calipers before, so this experience was yet another to add to my list of what I have learned throughout the program so far. Anyhow, I was able to work in the lab by myself and put on a little bit of music while examining the adorable eelgrass seeds, which I thought was really enjoyable. Finally, I have also been working on my presentation for the CMLC session this Saturday. Even though this week has been somewhat stressful as the program is beginning to come to a close and things are becoming more intense, I feel as if the CMLC presentation will be a fun experience to share our research and what we have been doing this summer with the public. For our professional development session this week, we had a discussion about graduate schools. We heard from some OIMB faculty members as well as a panel of current and incoming graduate students. Since I am in the process of looking at graduate schools right now, I really enjoyed hearing what graduate schools and PIs are or are not looking for, and the discussion addressed a vast majority of the questions that I already had and some questions that I did not realize that I had. Overall, I feel as if this professional development session is the most productive one that we have had so far. My 21st birthday was on Tuesday of this week (August 2), and I have to say that this birthday is in the top three of all of my birthdays combined. I normally do not make a big deal out of my birthday (largely because I am not usually keen on being the center of attention), but everyone really went out of their way to make me feel special, which meant more to me than words can describe. My day started with me noticing a happy birthday banner hung over the wall in front of my desk (courtesy of Colleen), which instantly put a smile on my face. Throughout the day, I received numerous birthday wishes from my family and my fellow REUs as well as a few gifts and cards. During dinner, members of the dining hall staff brought me a cupcake with a lit candle in it, and everyone sang happy birthday, which was most certainly appreciated but also definitely made me blush. Later that night, we spent the evening in town with Ali; being able to spend time and talk with my mentor and friends was a nice way to end my day. As I end this blog, I would just like to again highlight how grateful I am for my family’s support throughout this experience and how thankful I am for the absolutely amazing people that I have met during my time here. I am beyond humbled by everyone’s effort to make me stand out on my birthday as well as for everything that people have done for me during the program, no matter how small the task may have seemed. Salutations, blog readers! This week has been an eventful one, so prepare yourself for a lengthy blog post (sorry). To begin, I want to flashback to the end of last week. I was leaving the dining hall, and as I was walking out of the door, Colleen, who was walking in front of me, mentioned that I had received mail. Of course, I was not expecting any, but as I walked back in, I saw that there was definitely a letter sitting in my mailbox. To my astonishment, it was a letter from my great aunt and uncle, who I love dearly. The letter was simply asking me about my time in Oregon so far and keeping me updated as to their recent happenings at their home down in Florida. It was absolutely exciting to read and receive the letter, and I hope to start an old-fashioned letter correspondence with her.
This weekend, Sebastian, Sherlyn, Victoria, Annika, and I visited the West Coast Game Park Safari in Bandon. At the start of the program, Victoria mentioned something about noticing a wildlife park on her drive in to OIMB, and ever since, we all have wanted to go and decided that this past weekend would be the perfect time. In case you are not familiar with the Oregon area, Bandon is approximately 45 minutes from Charleston, so it was a little bit of a drive to get to the safari park. Nevertheless, we had a great idea to make a playlist of our top ten favorite songs, and if you know me, then you also know that the task of narrowing my song choices down to only ten songs was extremely challenging because of my long-lived, deep appreciation of music (my playlist on Spotify amounts to about 21 hours of listening, just to put things into perspective). Anyways, sharing my music and listening to everyone else’s music during the drive was really nice, especially since I learned that some of Sherlyn’s favorite songs are also some of my favorites (such as Come and Get Your Love by Redbone). While we were at the park, we saw a myriad of animals, ranging from goats to bears to even fishing cats, and many of the animals at the park roam freely for you to feed and pet. Even though I have developed a profound respect for eelgrass, being able to reconnect with animals after so long was truly refreshing, and many new best friends were made during the course of the trip (refer to the attached photos). As the highlight of the whole experience, one of my lifelong dreams was realized: petting a capybara. I have been fascinated by capybaras since I was younger, and it was so surprising when one of the park’s capybaras walked right up to me and Annika and rolled over for some lovely scratches. Additionally, the weather in Bandon was really warm and sunny, which was a nice change of pace from the gloom and fog in Charleston earlier and later that day. For your movie night update, we watched White Chicks this weekend, which is undoubtedly one of my favorite movies of all time. In fact, I watch this movie every time I am sick because it always makes me laugh and feel better. Also, our usual movie night group expanded to include Gina and J’mie this weekend, which was awesome. Near the beginning of this week, Victoria surprised all of us and kindly gifted the REUs with a small Mason jar filled with shark-themed candy in honor of shark week, which I greatly appreciated. To celebrate shark week, Victoria, Colleen, and I watched a short documentary about sharks found in the deep sea, which was really interesting and kind of shocking, but we all enjoyed learning more about these fascinating elasmobranchs. Project work this week has consisted of some early mornings of fieldwork. After this series of spring low tides, there is only one more week of spring low tides before I finish the REU program, so my fieldwork and data collection is beginning to come to a close, which is somewhat dispiriting but also encouraging. Nevertheless, I will be collecting data until the week before the program ends, so making a mad dash to integrate the new data into my poster quickly will certainly be stressful. During fieldwork this week, we collected data from Fossil Point, Clam Island, Valino Island, and Collver Point. Out of all of these sites, Clam Island is probably my favorite. First of all, the site itself and the views from it are beautiful, but what I like most about it is the squirting clams. As indicated by the name, Clam Island features abundant clams that love to shoot water from their siphons, so when you look across the mudflat, you can always see numerous clams spouting water from their position in the sand, effectively putting on an interesting waterwork display. In fact, the last time that we visited Clam Island, a clam almost shot water right into my face while I was counting eelgrass shoots! On Wednesday of this week, South Slough held an intern celebration potluck at Sunset Bay State Park in which all of the SSNERR interns were honored and fed delicious food. I went to the potluck with Sebastian and Colleen, and I enjoyed seeing and talking to some of the other interns that are leaving soon. As an unexpected surprise, all of the interns and their respective mentors were called to the front, where the mentors shared a short blurb about their interns and presented their intern with a certificate of appreciation. I was absolutely honored by this recognition and the kind words that Ali had to say about me. I have recently received some compliments and words of support/encouragement from dear friends and family who have been keeping up with this blog. I would just like to emphasize that I am genuinely and sincerely grateful for everyone who has taken the time to read about my journey. Your heartfelt messages have meant the world to me, and some happy tears have certainly been shed. |
AuthorHi everyone! My name is Chloe Cummins, and I am from Loretto, Tennessee. I am a rising senior at the University of Tennessee Southern where I am pursuing a B.S. degree in Biology (with a concentration in Wildlife Biology and Ecology) and a minor in Sustainability. I’m super excited to be researching the reproductive ecology of eelgrass with my mentor Ali Helms at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve during my time here at OIMB! Archives
August 2022
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