The final week has arrived! This summer was amazing to say the least. This last week has been full of preparations for our poster symposium on Friday. Putting together the poster was really difficult because there was so much information that I wanted to include but I had a limited amount of space to fit everything. I’m grateful for the advice of Richard, Maya and Nicole. They helped me condense my information down to a manageable size while still retaining the important information of my study. I think for my first poster it turned out nicely and I’m quite happy with the outcome. On Wednesday we got a break from our preparations and went out to Hall Lake. Gina, Sebastian, Colleen, J’mie, Chloe, Annika, Sherlyn, and I had ourselves an adventure in the dunes by the lake. We got to see a beautiful view of Oregon and swim in the lake. We had a really fun time hanging out in the water and also walking around the sandy dunes. I think that was probably the highlight of this entire week, being able to enjoy our remaining time in Oregon basking in the sun. If I ever find myself back here, I would definitely make sure to stop by Hall Lake again. There was no professional development this week or seminar and although it was nice to have time to work on our final posters, it was also sad. I enjoyed the weekly seminars and always learned a lot of new information each time, so not being able to sit in on a seminar this week was sad, but I’m planning on attending some back at my home institution. The day we all prepared for cam on Friday, our poster symposium. Nicole printed out our posters on Wednesday for us and on Friday afternoon I got to see mine on paper for the first time. I think it was really amazing to be able to see all of my work on this poster after obsessing over it for days leading up to our final due date. I was relieved to see how nicely it turned out, and once the initial shock of seeing it, I immediately became nervous about the poster session. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to explain my project clearly or that my poster would be confusing, but it was well received. Once I began to talk to people I started to feel more comfortable about it. Everyone had really wonderful questions and while I was able to answer most of them, there were some questions that I was unable to answer and got me thinking more about future ideas for my particular study. I stopped to see other posters from my fellow interns and it was cool seeing their final products after seeing their poster drafts some time ago. Although I am happy to go home I am certainly going to miss OIMB and all of the friends I made while I was here. I know I’ll also miss Mia (my mentors dog) barking every time me or someone else enters the lab, and learning more about sand dollar larvae each day. I’m so thankful for everyone at OIMB, the mentors, the kitchen staff who kept us well fed, the custodian who made sure everything was taken care of and all others who worked in the background that allowed us to live here comfortably on a day to day basis. Thank you OIMB!
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This past week has been quite a rush. I collected the last of my larvae pictures on Tuesday, and the rest of my time has been dedicated to measuring the larvae and measuring pigment cells. I still have some more to finish, but I’m sure I’ll have everything finished by the end of the weekend. I never realized how time-consuming measuring larvae could be, when I’m measuring 4 of them it isn’t so bad, but multiply 4 by 12 (for the 12 beakers used in total) and then again by 2 (for the 2 days they are photographed throughout treatment time) then suddenly the numbers start to add up. On Tuesday afternoon our professional development was a leadership training session that was given by a faculty member at the University of Oregon. I think the most informative part of the training for me had to have been the session that covered impostorism or imposter syndrome. I learned so much about impostorism, like the fact that there are different types and how the different types differ from each other but are still under the category of imposterism. We all got to view the different types and see how we connected with certain ones, and how we can connect at times to more than just one type. In the end our session leader provided us with tips on how to overcome those feelings and I think it was a wonderful way to learn how we aren’t alone in our feelings because all of us were able to connect in some way to those types of impostorism. We all have been worried about our posters and have been working hard to make sure they are perfect. On Wednesday night we all got together along with Richard, Nicole, and Maya. They all gave us very helpful feedback on our posters most of the feedback was related to the layout of posters and how to make it look organized and easy to read. We also gave feedback to each other on what might look better in terms of layout and organization. This took a little more than 2 hours to go through 11 posters, and I think by the end of it we were all tired, but we were ready with everything we needed to edit our posters the next day. With only one week left I’m wondering where all our time went, it feels like not to long ago we were just arriving to OIMB and meeting our mentors in person for the first time. I’m excited to see the products of all of our efforts this summer come together on a single poster.
The majority of this week I spent collecting or reviewing data, and while it took long hours I enjoyed the process and it went smoothly. Although, there was one night that I dreamt I was surrounded by little swimming Dendraster larvae and I couldn’t get away from them…needless to say it was not a restful sleep, but it’s pretty funny to think about. I have a lot of pictures of larvae to look over and I am hoping to get it done as quickly as possible so I can begin to put that data on a poster we are making. I’m excited though, it’s my first time making a poster and I think it will be cool to see all my work from the past weeks put together in one place. On the weekend Chloe, Sherlyn, Colleen and I went to a thrift shop together so they could search for costumes for the invertebrate ball this week. I sadly will not be able to attend as I am going back to Southern California to go to a Quinceneara, so that should be really fun. I’m excited to be home for a bit and enjoy the warm weather. Even though Oregon has amazing weather, I do miss the hot temperatures of SoCal. As I won’t be here this weekend I will also be missing our CMLC session where we are presenting our project to the local community and visitors of the Marine Center. I would have loved to see all the different ideas and ways that my fellow interns are using to communicate their science to the public. I will be presenting my own project to the public at the CMLC next weekend though, so I won’t be missing out on a great opportunity.
With only two weeks left I think we are all feeling the time crunch to finish collecting our data and start getting everything set to go on our posters. My plan for the next week is to go through all the pictures of the larvae I have captured so far and measure them all. When I measure then I will be getting numbers for their postoral arm length, midline body length, stomach diameter, and most importantly pigment coverage in the arms of the larvae. That’s all the news I have for this week, until next time! This weekend we got out of Charleston for a bit and drove down to a Wildlife Game Park in Bandon, Oregon. A couple of us (Annika, Chloe, Sherlyn, Sebastian, and I) enjoyed our Sunday by petting goats, capybaras, deer, and other animals. Chloe and I even had a chance to meet a handsome Serval named Sonic. It was nice to get away for the day and spend some time around vertebrates, as most of us spend our days working with invertebrates. I was hoping to catch a glimpse at some ring-tailed lemurs, but they were nowhere to be seen. I don’t believe they escaped their enclosure…so they must have been hiding out or sleeping in an area blocked off from public view. The rest of the week passed by quickly. I fertilized sand dollar eggs early Monday, and once Tuesday came alone they were ready to be put into their treatment beakers. I set them up in my sea table outside and they will stay there for a week. During all of that set up I managed to get a start on my project poster, so far I only have a rough outline of how the poster will look, but it is a start.
This Tuesday we all went to the CMLC (Charleston Marine Life Center) to learn about communicating our science to the general public. It was not something I previously thought about, and it’s something I am grateful to have learned. Science is fun and exciting, but not everyone feels the same, and not everyone has a deep understanding of it either. I think it was a great way to get us thinking about how to make others excited about the wonders of what we discover. To help us practice this skill each of us will be preparing a small display at the CMLC regarding our research project of the summer. During our time there we will introduce our project to visitors of the CMLC and make the material digestible and fun for people of all ages. There's not many weeks left here and it's a little nerve-wracking thinking about everything that still has to be done for my project. I know in the end it will turn out fine, but it's hard not to think about it all when the weeks are passing by so quickly. It's crazy to think that more than a month ago I was just arriving here at OIMB. I'm still the same person I was before, except now I have new experiences and new skills under my belt and I'll always be thankful for that. |
AuthorMy name is Victoria I am from Palmdale, CA but over my life I have moved around a lot and lived different places. I love to travel and explore, especially along the coast. I am a Zoology major studying at Cal Poly Humboldt and like to spend time reading about animal behavior. Archives
August 2022
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