A bit of ecology for your perusal. :) *CLIMATE CHANGE

Had an ecology midterm last week.  It's interesting stuff!  Read on!

Research Update: 10.20.2010

Hello World.  So my research is going swimmingly.  I've reached the 200 hour mark in the lab and am FINALLY starting to see some preliminary trends in my data.  (yay data!) I've been pointing and counting my heart out -- slowly picking away at tiny detail work that will pay off in the end.  (See the pictures!)  I've been working pretty hard, but I'm anxious to start identifying the pan trap samples.

Doing My Part And Then Some

So I'm teaching and tutoring and studying like mad, but somehow I feel like I should be doing something more.  I just watched "The Cove," and as usual it's sparked my inner activist a bit.   The reason I'm studying ecology/entomology in the first place, why I'm trying to get a doctorate to become a professor is because the environment needs to be studied, it needs to be protected, and people need to be educated about how it works, how we impact it and how we can change the way we exploit the environment so that we aren't destroying it.

Stage Two: Divide and Conquer!

With the collecting side of my research complete I now face the the task of sorting, IDing, counting, and pointing the insects collected over the past four months.  I have two types of samples from two different collection techniques: yellow pan traps and beat nets.

My world rocks!

Gearing up for school again!

This semester I'm teaching at the ACRT, tutoring via CSU's TASC, taking a super-awesome course on urban ecology (with two of my favorite teachers), AND I'm finishing up my field work and (hopefully) generating some data for my master's.  If all goes according to plan, I'll graduate in May 2011.  Yep, it's a great time to be me.

In just a few short weeks I've got a Symposium to go to!  I'm not presenting (soon, though) but the talks look like they're gonna be great! (A la Tony The Tiger) 

I thought it would be nice to post a few goals I've been thinking of -- a little reminder to myself that I'm doing all of this for a reason.

Goal 1:  Sort through and identify (to family) initial set of sweepnet collections.
Goal 2:  Examine data from initial set.  (Was it worth it?)
Goal 3:  Invite my family over for dinner.  Cook fancy rustic French food.
Goal 4: Teach Charlie the Cat to walk on a leash.
Goal 5:  Apply to Michigan State University for dual entomology/eeb doctoral program.  (And Ohio State as a backup plan)
Goal 6:  ID and pin pan trap collections.  Afterwards, reek of awesomeness (and ethanol.)
Goal 7:  Get accepted and offered assistantship/stipend at MSU.  (That would be AMAZING)

Well, hopefully I manage to get a few of these in the next year.

Farewell to Summertime

Well, summer is coming to an end.  Of course, field season doesn't end until the snow hits the ground.  I'm happy with this summer though- I've learned so much about insects, entomology, lab techniques and field techniques.  I've worked SO hard to get where I am now.  I've got two semesters to finish this project and if everything goes according to plan I'll graduate in May.  (yay! graduation!)

As far as work goes I've got several jobs right now, and I'm so busy with work and school and research and family that finding time to sleep is hard, but I'm figuring it out.  I've got so much to do and so much to look forward to-- and I'm a little impatient about it, I keep reminding myself "the journey is more important than the destination."    I'm not really sure why I feel so rushed about this--like I'm ready for the next phase of life--and sometimes I get so caught up in planning for the future that I forget to appreciate the present.

Yippee!

Well, I've decided that I need and want a PhD.  I love teaching.  I love my research.  I love spending my summers outside doing research.  Combine all those and you get me, ten years from now, leading a crew of undergraduates students through a forest (wetland/stream/grassland/ecosystem of your choice) while calmly conducting a biology lecture.  Yes indeed.

So now, while I'm not working on my master's project I'll have this question to ponder:  WHERE?

I know I want a degree in entomology with an ecology/evolutionary biology focus.

I've done some browsing.  *I'll keep a list running here with options

Right now, my top two choices are:

Michigan State University:  Dual doctoral program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology and behavior.  This program seems incredible-- and when I'm done I'll have two doctorates, which is a bit baffling.  (And super cool!!)

Ohio State University:  Entomology program seems pretty good, know a few people from there as well.  Closer to home than Michigan.

Busy Busy Busy!

ohmygoodness!

Research, working, and keeping up with friends and the family have me runnin!  :) I love it though.

The research is going really well.  I've added sweep nets to the collecting, so I've got a bunch of stuff to sort through!  It's gonna be a really busy winter!  Spent about an hour cleaning my corner of the messy lab-- looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a few years.  Some say a messy lab is just a consequence of genius, I say a messy lab makes it easier to lose things! 

Collecting is a lesson on patience, it's going pretty well-- I'm sorting through the sweepnet stuff when I can, but I'll probably do the majority of that starting in December.  The entire group does quite a bit, it's kind of funny cause we just pull up and descend on the sites, this giant crew that collects and measures and samples as fast as we can, then we jump in the cars and drive off.  In addition to my pan traps and sweep nets we've got pitfall traps, worms, isopods, birds, Mary's group from OSU that does pitfalls and sticky traps.  Collectively we're putting together vegetation height complexity survey--it's INCREDIBLY tedious, and with mowing being unpredictable it's bound to be interesting.  

And they're off!

Wednesday: painted 200 Styrofoam bowls yellow.  

Discovered that too much spray paint melts Styrofoam.  

Thursday: kicked my way up and down Haskel run.  Found many cool critters, including two ticks in my hair.  

Friday:  Thesis research is go!  Set 110 of 200 pan traps at 11 different sites!  

Saturday:  Day with the fam! Parade the Circle + adventure involving a policeman saying "Seriously, I'm not trying to be funny.  You just cross the street"

Tomorrow: Collecting from the sites.  

Pictures to follow!

mental conditioning

What a whirlwind it's been.  Between hiking, teaching and getting things together for my own research, the past two weeks have been kind of wild.  I've been hiking through various streams in Ohio and looking at the critters that live in and around those streams.  I'm using this partly to "condition" my mind, prepping it for the mass amount of thinking to come.  My thesis research starts this weekend, after much anticipation.

Brandywine Falls

Riparian Habitat beneath Brandywine Falls

Not the best but still ok photo of various critters we found in the stream