Community Connection
For my community connection I sent flower seeds to a local elementary school for them to plant so that bees can continue to support the pollination of flowers, which in turn supports the bee population.
CSI Project
Project Summary
After learning about crime scene investigations and how officials solve crimes, we applied this knowledge to our own investigation. There were three different crime scenes set up. It was up to us to analyze the evidence and come to a conclusion on how the person was killed/ who killed them. In our crime scene, we were able to fingerprint evidence, use blood typing to either limit the suspects or simply identify the blood, use blood spatter analysis to find where the victim was positioned and use a dowel to find the trajectory of the bullet and the angle the victim's head was at when he was shot. As we got further in our investigation we needed to use DNA processing to finalize our investigation. From these crime scene investigations, we were able to understand how to solve a crime and all the components that are involved in doing so. After finishing our investigation and coming to a conclusion, we created a poster that displayed our process and evidence logs for a final exhibition.
Project Reflection
Overall I really enjoyed this project, but I was most excited by the skills and knowledge I will take away from it. I liked the process of solving a crime and being an "investigator", but the DNA processing fascinated me most. I loved learning and actually isolating DNA as well as putting it in a gel box and attaching a positive charge to the opposite end of the isolated DNA to see the unique banding patterns of the DNA. Not only was it interesting to actually process DNA, but I was curious about the results and how we were able to solve a crime with this evidence! I had a bit of difficulty towards the middle of the investigation with motivating myself to write my evidence logs and be engaged in the process. However, as the crime began to take shape and we had more and more evidence, I felt totally engaged and excited by our findings. I also felt a little bit of disconnect between myself and my partner, although we worked well together, we were both a little confused on which evidence logs needed to be written and who needed to write them. This lead to us rushing to complete them before exhibition. Although this was a little difficult, we pulled it together at the end and created a refined project.
Dissections
For this project we chose to dissect either a fetal pig, dog shark or cat. I decided on a pig because it is most like the human anatomy which fascinates me. It was a two week process in which we learned about the anatomy and physiology of the fetal pig through examining the digestive, respiratory, circulatory, urogenital and nervous systems. To conclude the process, we took a final exam over everything we had learned.
Monkey Meal Plan
For this project we created recipes for chimps and monkeys with certain carb, fats, and sugar restrictions to be sent to a shelter for monkeys. I completed an Enrichment brochure for the Challenge Extension which included different ways to enhance the shelters for the monkeys through structural enrichment such as hammocks, ropes, and platforms that mimic the natural habitat, social enrichment such as activities like tag and grooming which increase the bond between the chimps and the chimps and caretakers, and object enrichment which help them enhance their skills on how to open different object like food containers.
Green Goddess Smoothie
Created by: Rebekah Kuster
Category: Regular Meal for Chimps and Monkeys
Total Carbs: 408.94 grams
Total Fats: 37.956 grams
Total Sugars: 247.09 grams
Makes: 204 oz/25.5 cups
Serve in: Cups
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Ingredients:
Directions:
Green Goddess Smoothie
Created by: Rebekah Kuster
Category: Regular Meal for Chimps and Monkeys
Total Carbs: 408.94 grams
Total Fats: 37.956 grams
Total Sugars: 247.09 grams
Makes: 204 oz/25.5 cups
Serve in: Cups
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 5 cups unsweetened greek yogurt
- 4 cups banana (peeled)
- 7 cups strawberries (frozen)
- 2 cups orange juice
- 1/2 cups peaches (frozen)
- 5 cups spinach (washed)
- 1 cup avocado (mashed)
- 1 cup cucumber (with peel)
Directions:
- Put all ingredients in blender (If too much strain on blender, add first four ingredients and blend, then add next four ingredients, then blend)
- Blend
Habitat Assessment Project
For this project we learned about leopard frogs and bullfrogs. We then went to Durango Nature Studies (DNS) and took samples of water quality and counted populations of both frog species. After collecting and arranging this data we wrote a summary of our experience at DNS, wrote an overview of each species, concluded the results, and wrote a discussions and recommendations section to help DNS in the future.
In the process of completing this project we learned many new skills, including I-D-ing frogs, fieldwork of data collection, data analysis, using excel to create tables about our data, and technical writing for the four sections of our paper (DNS summary, species overview, results, discussions and recommendations).
Overall, I am pleased with my product. I feel like I accomplished the main goals of the assignment and in the process was able to learn new skills. I did have trouble motivating myself to independently work, but in the end I pushed myself and completed a beautiful project. I am proud of the final outcome, especially the discussions and recommendations part, because although, I originally had trouble with it, I over came that.
In the process of completing this project we learned many new skills, including I-D-ing frogs, fieldwork of data collection, data analysis, using excel to create tables about our data, and technical writing for the four sections of our paper (DNS summary, species overview, results, discussions and recommendations).
Overall, I am pleased with my product. I feel like I accomplished the main goals of the assignment and in the process was able to learn new skills. I did have trouble motivating myself to independently work, but in the end I pushed myself and completed a beautiful project. I am proud of the final outcome, especially the discussions and recommendations part, because although, I originally had trouble with it, I over came that.