Arizona Wet Water Education

I’m so tired! Today I went to the Rio Salado Restoration Area. It was wonderful to see an area that used to be nothing but a place to dump trash being restored. I saw rabbits and all kinds of birds, of course, lizards and turtles, and water fowls. I thought that I saw what might be a finch. It was the brightest, prettiest yellow. I think that I have this picture in my head of Phoenix as just desert that really excludes wetland habitats, but with the rivers, types of those habitats must be here. I mean not hours out of the city but right here. I can hardly wait to explore stuff like that once I transfer to university to take the classes specific for my major. Anyway, I was really there to volunteer for project Wet. We had groups of 4-5 sixth graders that performed science tasks related to difference fields in science (Botany, Soil Science, Entymology, Water Chemistry, etc.). My group used kits to test for the quantity of different nutrients in the water. Since it’s science, our kits were expired and didn’t actually turn the appropriate colors, but we did get some results. It was fun to talk about the science and why it’s important. And it was just so pretty out there. It just feels good to be outside sometimes.

Summer opportunities

I’m starting to get caught up. I think that I’m feeling much more capable this semester, so I am still freaking out a little bit about doing everything and doing it well, but I am much more confident that I am perfectly capable. I just need to block out the time and place which sounds much easier than it really is. As far as our experiment, I’m hoping to really zero in on the FTIR. I really like the idea of having quantitative results, and I’m hoping that not a lot of undergraduate researchers will have FTIR results and that maybe it will set us apart. That’s not super important to me, but it would be really nice. I’m really excited about potentially finding some kind of fellowship or internship this semester. I’ve applied for a few. Shout out to Nicole Spencer and Robin Cotter for helping me fill them out. Nicole helps a lot with the STEAM club, but I totally didn’t know that she helped with things like that too. She’s helped multiple students apply for science stuff over the summer though. You should go see her. :-) I’m currently working on completing the application for the program in the attached picture. I’m including a picture, so you can apply too. Your welcome.

The craziness begins

So this is what happened. On Wednesday, my grandmother was taken in an ambulance to the hospital for a suspected stroke. (She has recovered!) On Thursday evening, I began to have symptoms of step throat. On Saturday, I went to the doctor. I was okay by Monday, but I wasn't good for a thing over the weekend. My son was suspended from Kindergarten on Monday. (I'm convinced that my child's school just enjoys suspending children since they are suspending Kindergartners for pushing. That is just what 5 year olds do. I'm pretty sure it's in the job description.) I got the lab that I had due on Tuesday mixed up because a scheduling issue put us on a different lab than the next one in the book, so my pre-lab wasn't good for much not to mention that I spaced the calculations for the previous lab. On Wednesday, my beautiful son was suspended again. They figured two days this time, but they assure me that he's not the only Kindergartner that is having these very same issues. I have received an extension for a paper for Logic. I am now beginning to understand just how illogical I really am. Hell, I'm starting to feel downright batty. If I was an earlier version of me, I think that I would start capitulating right about now. I don't know that I'm not doing that, but I don't feel as though I am. I just want to push through this mess.
On the upside, I have finished applying for a fellowship this summer. Wish me luck. And MNT was sooo much fun today. It was just the break that I needed. In addition to the protocol and small experiment, we looked through some career facts on the bureau of labor statistics website. One of my classmates was telling me that GCU is about to have their very first class of graduating engineers! I'm really excited to have a nonprofit school with an engineering program right in the middle of Phoenix! I'm going to keep an eye on them. They seem to be moving in a good direction.
It's been raining a lot. I kinda like it.

Volcano

This semester is starting so odd. I feel super off kilter. It is too soon for that, but on the up side, maybe I can get that out of the way early and really get into a flow. I'm really excited about the subjects that I'm taking this semester. I got into the MNT class, and I get to do an independent project for that. I'm taking geology! I've never had any kind of geology. I'm excited, and my son Loves rocks, so that just makes me more interested because I get to go home and tell him all the stuff. It's awesome. We made a volcano this weekend, and we're working on some crystals right now. They take about 10 days. Oh, and I found a place in my schedule for Logic! I think it will be extremely useful, and the instructor is amazing. Eddie Genna. If you can take a class with him, you should; you will be nothing but better for it. Aww, I'm feeling better already just thinking about how much I like all my classes. Our project face planted this week. The FTIR machine was down, so we didn't get to analyze any samples. Such is science.

Winter Break

We had a lot of fun over winter break. We saw some fake snow at the Children's Museum. We finally made the salt dough ornaments that I've been meaning to make with him since he was born (because stuff like that is one of the reasons that you have kids). We had an awesome Christmas. We still haven't assembled all the Lego sets. My research team all worked together, and we collected a lot of samples that we'll be testing this semester. We'll see if we can make it through all the testing this semester. I hope everyone else's break was awesome.

That's the plan

There's so much hanging after this semester. Usually, I feel relieved after the semester is over, but there's so much left to do that .... well I guess that I still feel relieved. I do not have that feeling that things are rolling away from me. I still feel like there's a ton to do, and I haven't gotten some of grades back yet, so I'm a little anxious about that. Over the break we're going to begin a test for colonization with more regularly sized plastics. I'm a little disappointed that we couldn't start the 120 day co incubation, but this is great practice for that. I am very motivated to complete the test for colonization, and I find that I'm definitely feeling more comfortable organizing our tests and trying to think of solutions to issues that come up which is good because honestly I was starting to feel like I was just being way too dramatic about issues that were popping up in the process of my research when I should have been just problem solving. Dr Cotter has really been a wonderful example of that. We are going to bang out this colonization test, and we'll find out some stuff. You always find out something.

In retrospect

I'm a bit relieved that this semester is coming to an end. Towards the end all the little things that had begun to get away from me really started adding up most especially with my research. Given the semester to do over again, I'd try to plan ahead better for due dates, and I'd try to schedule more time for meetings with my research partners. We could have especially benefited from paying better attention to our data as it came in instead of just at the end when we could lump it all together. I'm looking forward to next semester even though I'm happy to be through this one.