Last Day

As I am frantically soaking in the hours of my last day here at the park, I've thought a lot about what exactly I've gotten out of the internship, making mental lists longer than Santa's.

It's weird to think that after the going-away dinner for Estee, Erin and I, I will probably never see any of these people again. Estee is getting married and then heading off to New Mexico to do some tortoises research.. Erin is getting a new position at another national park up in Oregon. And I.. I am finally realizing that I only have 4 more months to work in Tucson and enjoy the wicked, scorching summer before heading off to Vermont..

So to finally put some thoughts to paper(or screen, I suppose), I've compiled a list of some of the things I've gained through this experience..

1.) A wealth of information regarding the plants, animals, and general ecology of the Sonoran Desert.

2.) Experience writing professional articles, and a better knowledge of how to write different types of articles.

3.) An appreciation for black coffee first thing in the morning...around lunch time.. and later in the afternoon.

4.) A better understanding of the structure of the park service, the various positions held, and its legalities and inner workings

5.) An increased awareness of the necessity of the Park in regards to conserving the environment..and the effects of humans on the environment.

6.) Practice interpreting our resources for visitors, and establishing emotional and cognitive connections between visitors and the Park.

7.) Lessons on interpretive writing, interpretive talks, and the history of the Park Service.

8.) A venue for one of my articles!

9.) Experience (finally!) driving =)

10.) A plethora of new close friends and interesting acquaintances.

11.) A newfound interest in working with kids.. and an acquired comprehension about the best ways to maintain children's attentions.

12.) An abundance of new mentors and roll models who have been-there-done-that with some of the complications of life.. and college.. who are willing to stay in touch with me to help give me advice about classes to take and how to manage the adjustment from high school to college.

The process gets to be more fun

I am officially editing! After converting and renaming my footage I started putting together my cut but not edited together footage (that is, without transitions or video filters) into a rough cut. It has proved extremely rewarding and has helped pull the convoluted mess of ideas out of my head and applied them to the project. I am still rather shaky at using the editing software but i get better and better the more time I spend working on it. That's all for now

Too much data?

The question is if you can actually have too much data.  The answer is no.  I thought that I was going to have ample data, and today I realized I had just enough, no more than I needed, no less. Thankfully, my presentation is coming along and so far I have collected all of my data and now am comparing the different teaching styles for retention of the information.

Anyways, I'm back at BASIS, as a Teacher's assistant in 2 Alg II classes, 2 Calc I classes, and a Calc II class.  It's fun.  And I'm also getting ready for AP Physics C which should also be a whole lot of fun.  So, even though I am really busy comparing data and studying for my final AP test, I'm having a great time!

~Matt

Gratitude..

Yesterday I did a Desert Wonders school pre-visit at Hollanger Elemtary..and it was quite a treat. They were by far, the rowdiest, loudest, most inattentive group of kids I have had to work with yet. Throughout my talk, all the kids were continually talking despite my desperate, polite pleas for silence. Not only did the teacher not do anything to assist me, but the rest of the staff was incredibly rude. On top of all that, when I got there the wicked woman at the front desk told me the wrong room to go to.. I eventually found the right room, and it turns out that I didn't have to go to any room at all- they were all waiting for me in the library.
And on the way home I got stuck behind a tractor on AZ-86 =/

Then..today, the same group of kids came out to the park to do the Desert Wonders program. Dreadfully, I drug myself outside to greet them and make sure they were all ready to hike. Within ten minutes, though, I realized that it was all worth it. After many of the kids came up to me excited, telling me that this was the first time they had ever been here, and that they wouldn't have even been able to come if we hadn't organized the field trip for them, I realized why I love doing what I'm doings so much.........

And in a quite sappy and sentimental way, I cannot beleive it is my last week here..

I'm a-thinkin' and wonderin', walking down the road

I apologize for not posting on here as often as I should. I've been very busy and it just slips my mind. No excuse though.

I removed my equipment from Mt. Lemmon because I will be too busy to work on Mt. Lemmon anymore. I haven't talked to my off campus advisor yet; we're all pretty occupied with work and such. Next week, though, I hope to speak with him in person for the first time in a while to get help with my paper, return equipment, etc.

Good News!

So my advisor just pulled me aside..and then on second thought brought me back into the room with a ton of other staff and announced that the teachers from the school I visited the other day just called and said that I was fantastic, wonderful with working with kids, and did an absolutely amazing job when I went. She also said that they all agreed that the kids loved me, they learned a lot, and if the Park could find any way to keep me, they absolutely need to!

=D

Data, data and more data

I've been working on creating a database recently that includes all of the control rats the lab has done in the past so that they can be referenced for current and future studies. It was fairly interesting going through the data because, through the numbers and various parameters, you could really see how dramatically heart function was reduced due to a heart attack. I finished the database last week and was able to present my work at the weekly lab meeting.

Today, I started working with another set of data. This set took the form of pictures rather than just numbers, though. When the hearts are analyzed for infarct size (which is measured by analyzing the size of the scar on the heart), they are cut into three sections. I was organizing the pictures of these treated hearts into folders based on the severity of their heart attack. So I got to look at pictures of healthy and injured hearts. The difference is scarily drastic!

Codecs are a headache

My second week back has been exciting to say the least but in a very different way than my trip. My first priority when I got back was to get an editing program for my laptop... to you know edit my final project. I did a lot of research before and during my trip and had already decided on a program. One of the main reasons that I had chosen that program was that it had AVCHD compatibility. On a quick and confusing side note my footage is recorded digitally to a hard drive using the h.264 compression codec (a codec is the language in which data is compressed/decompressed) now I was under the impression that h.264 was the same thing as AVCHD which meant that I could just drag and drop my footage into the editor. I was wrong. AVCHD is a different codec than h.264 and is only used by Sony and Panasonic camcorders. I have a samsung camcorder so when I went to import the footage I got an error message.

So after a week of research I have solved my problem. What I have to do is open the footage with a conversion program that plays back and captures the footage in real time. This means that two seconds of footage takes two seconds to convert and two hours of footage takes two hours to convert. There is one benefit to this process though and that is organization. As I recapture the footage from a file named HDV_000304 I can cut it up into as many different files as I want and rename those "flower in sunset 1" then put that file into the "sunsets in Villa Arcadia" folder. This will save me loads of time when putting my footage into a timeline (I hope).

Just Like Heaven

First thing monday morning, I got drafted to do two school pre-visits at Desert Wind's Elementary, due to an unexpected short-staff situation. Overall it went pretty well, although I accidentally switched the words "omnivore" and "herbivore" during my first talk...needless to say this added a certain level of confusion within the preoccupied minds of 3rd and 4th graders. Other than that, it went relatively smoothly, and somewhere along the way I earned the honory identity of, "Hey, Ranger Lady.."
Throughout my time here, it has never ceased to amaze me how far kids will go out of their way to tell stories in the midst of a lecture. Even with the preface before the program that there won't be enough time for everyone to tell personal stories, they never fail to try to sneak them in. I ask a question, and am impressed by the number of hands raised. Just my luck, I always call on the kid who takes the opportunity to start telling a story instead of answering my question.
Oh kids.. gotta love them.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading off to Marana High School's day care to tend to a slew of 3-5 year olds; with a slideshow, a box full of animal skulls and furs, some coloring books and picture books, I am ready to entertain for 70 minutes.

I hope all is well!

Things Going In Boxes!

Tonight is my final night in Tunisia. I was supposed to get a visit from a professor that I had talked to last week. She had promised to bring me some useful information, which I was looking forward to. Alas, she was either too busy or simply forgot to pay me a visit since I haven't heard from her since. Ah, oh well.
Yesterday I said a somber goodbye to my Arabic teacher, Ahlem. I will miss her, especially since she evidently doesn't have an email address.
I feel upset that I am not coming back with any physical books (other than a copy of "The Stranger" in French that I purchased) but I feel much more knowledgeable about the situation in Tunisia and I think that having not come here would never have led me to the realizations and insights that I gained. In the last few days, in particular, I've learned some upsetting facts about employment and school in Tunisia. Supposedly, unemployment rates are upwards of %50 in almost every line of work, which is very, very upsetting. Tunisian students go through fourteen years of highschool, all of which is focused around memorization and repetition. Few essays are ever written and anything like creative writing is unheard of. To imagine going through that kind of system to be faced with such daunting odds at finding a job is very startling.
I'm packing up an heading back to the States, where I'll be doing some more research to bulk up the solid foundation of my paper. My efforts stateside will be met with more success, I am sure of it.

It just figures

So I finally made it into the UMC OR last week and it was great. This week, today in fact, I had intended on observing my first lung surgery with Dr. Smith at the UMC. Well that didn't happen because I've come down with the flu. How irritating is that? To make matters worse, I won't be able to go in tomorrow either for the same reason. Next week my OR time will be cut short again because I am off to visit Williams College. Its all good though. I am going to request an extra week or two of OR time in May to make up for lost time. I'll let you guys know when I finally get to see some brains up close.

On another note, my powerpoint presentation is complete, my article is 95 % complete, and my patient analysis is...getting there. I am going to have to spend some time in clinic to complete those.

Hope you all are doing well!

who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals

Wesolych Swiat Wielkanocnych! Happy Easter, or... Happy Springtime, or Happy Lots o'Candy Day, or Happy Almost Graduation!

I'm in pretty high spirits today. Since I've been in Minnesota (well, Wisconsin right now), I've accomplished a lot on my paper. Almost done! Now for the presentation...which currently has only a title slide.

All the times I was on Mount Lemmon I did not see a single squirrel, and there are five currently outside my window here. I even saw an Abert's squirrel in its warm weather gray coat. My family thinks they are huge pests, but I find them quite adorable. There is a family (pack? group? herd?) of about 5 deer that come around the feeder every night and many, many Canadian geese and robins. I love watching the wildlife up here.

My grandmother is also a wildlife enthusiast and has a wealth of information that I'm taking advantage of. She has field guides galore and an Audobon encyclopedia of North American wildlife.

College decision is more or less made. There's some things to sort through first.

I had a sad moment last night when I realized how far away everyone seemed, how the recent past doesn't feel so recent...but graduation is so close and I couldn't be more excited.

I just realized that Kurt Cobain and Allen Ginsberg both died on April 5th, three years apart. What a sad day for talent. A lot of birthdays in April, though!

Best wishes (I bet you're all watching the Mass at the Vatican like I am!),

Katharine

I finished the rough draft yesterday!!! Now all I have left to do is to get it to Joe Marshall (my adviser) to edit, and then I'll be all set to start redrawing and hopefully inking a chunk of the story. I've still got a lot of work ahead of me. Now is when things start to get technical and confusing. I've already had to start asking my dad about stuff like lettering and how to use ellipses templates.

Oh! And..

I highly recommend investing in the book, Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. It's an absolutely pricesless twist on Jane Austen........................

My final weeks..

As I am preparing for my final weeks at Saguaro National Park, I am working nonstop on the article that they want for the front page of their newspaper. I decided to go back through the interpretive writing class that they bought for me and use all of the step-by-step activities as models for progressing with my article. Needless to say..prewriting was one of the activities. I spent a good two hours making this web...only to have the final product solely accentuate the fact that there is a lot that I'll have to cut back on to fit the 500 word limit.

Among the article writing and front-desk managing, I have several more education outreach programs to wrap up my term here. On the 15th, I am supposed to attend the Marana High School Day Care and do an animal trunk program with a group of about 20 3-5 year olds. Then on the morning of the 16th, a group of 100 3rd graders are coming out to the park for a Desert Wonders Program. They're going to be split into 5 groups to do 5 different stations. The station that I'm in charge of will be an activity down in the basement. Then later in the afternoon, I am supposed to go with Estee to the YMCA to do an outreach program with some kids there.

I hope everyone else's projects are going smoothly!

Let the editing begin!

Now that im back it is time to start editing. but before i start anything technical i will need a storyboard for my movie. this is proving to be the most difficult step in the process so far because while i was on my trip i could just record everything, upload it and record more. so its all about reviewing footage and trying to decide what sequence of pictures correspond to the ideas that i want to convey. My books are proving their worth... yet again and i am receiving great advice from former basis teacher, Jonathan VanBallenberghe.

New tests!

So, the crystals we have been trying to grow are finally done. Okay, well they might not be done (we stuck them in the freezer with water so they froze.) But, we looked at them under the microscope and they glow orange. It is really cool. Unfortunately there is a lot of junk around them. I really hope they work because then we can get a crystal structure. Also, tomorrow we will be running tests to see if the materials I have made are actually good catalysts. It will be so interesting to see. I am really excited because now I can add another procedure to my presentation!

The Hours Toiled Away With Books..

I've spent the majority of the day doing research for my NPS article..the subject being the ethnobotanic aspects of the Hohokam and Tohono O'oadham peoples. And so far, so good! My biggest concern is in regards to how much that I have to talk about..and having to confine it into five hundred words or less.
A lot of what I've read about so far has either been stuff I already knew from having worked with the Park for so long, or surprisingly interesting facts.

A little idea of what I'm working with....

1.) The Jojoba- The Tohono O'adham use a past of the nut as an antioxidant salve on burns. It was also taken back to Spain and the Vatican as a cure for baldness (although the success of this venture is unknown). It's also known as the "Save the Whale" plant because the Jojoba "beans" contain more than 40% oil (a liquid wax), which serves as a high quality lubricant equivalent sperm whale oil. The Seri tribe of Sonora Mexico, on the other hand, did not regard it as an essential food option, and solely ate it during emergencies.

2.) The Prickly Pear- the buds of this plant were also regarded by the Tohono O'oadham as a source of nutrition. After rolling hte buds on the ground/ hard surface to remove any spines and glochids, they would pitroast them for a day and then either eat them immediately or dry/pickle them for later consumption. These buds are a significant source for protein, calcium, and fiber. These were primarily eaten after dry season before the Saguaro fruits ripen. The pads of the Prickly Pear, Nopales were also eaten (the younger ones have less oxalic acid and are more tender). The smaller pads, Nopalitos, are cut into small bites and are similar to okra; they are also good for thickening broths. Prickly pear pads have been proven to help control blood-sugar levels and to reduce blood cholesterol. The juice of prickly pears was also used by the natives to strengthen adobe mortar.
The Cochineal, a scale insect that feeds on prickly pears, was also ground up to form a crimson dye. When imported back to Europe, it was so expensive that only loyalty could afford it. The Cochineal industry thrived until the late 1800s when cheaper aniline dyes became more available. This dye is still used in red candies, beverages, and lipstick; it is one of the only red dyes approved by the FDA.

3.) The Saguaro- saguaro fruit is an extremely significant fruit to the Tohono O'oadham. Women would use poles made from Saguaro ribs to knock off Saguaro fruit- the pulp would then be boiled down into syrup. Some of the syrup could then be used to make wine for the rain-making ceremony. The seeds of the fruit were dried and can then be eaten or ground into flour to make gruel. Saguaro fruits were an essential aspect of Tohono O'oadham nutrition, as they were composed of 10% protein, 70% carbohydrate, and the seeds were 30% fat. The Tohono O'oadham still participate in an annual Saguaro Harvesting ceremony.

4.) The Mesquite Tree- Tohono O'adham and Hohokam peoples ate te seeds, but also ground them up into flour to use in broths, stews, and breads. The inner bark was used as material for basketry, coarse fabrics, and medicine. Gum from the stem is still used to manufacture candies, as mucilage for mending pottery, and as black dye.

5.) The Ocotillo- used for fencing, house walls, and ramada roofs. The flowers were soaked in cold water to make tea.

6.) The Creosote Bush- this is not only the most drought-tolerant perrenial plant in North America, but it is also one of the most amazingly useful plants, commonly known as the "drugstore of the desert.Not only did the Tohono O'oadham and Hohokam use the lac produced by the Tachardiella larrae (a small scale insect that lives in the bush) as a multipurpose glue/sealant, but the Creosote had a plethora of medicinal applications as well. Thus, it became the single most widely used medicinal herb of the Sonoran Desert. It could be used as an anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, or as a topical rub for rheumatism and arthritis. The Indians would heat leaf-bearing branches and tye them sore body parts in order to ease discomfort. Crushed leaves and lac were used to treat respiratory colds, sore throats and even tuberculosis. When steamed, it was used as a decongestant. The "Chaparral Tea" made from the leaves treated a variety of ailments due to its antioxidant properties. Creosote was also consumed orally to ease gastrointentinal upsets, and was applied to cuts, abrasions and skin disorders; it was often used as an antiseptic and astringent. Creosote was also used for oral health as well, commonly being applied to ease toothaches. Among many other uses, creosote could even treat fevers and dandruff, and was often utilized as a deoderant.

Finally!

I finally saw some new stuff today. Dr. Bose did a complex Mitral Valve repair at TMC today. It was super neat to see...even though the surgery lasted six hours straight. Oi that's a long time to stand in one place. Needless to say my neck, lower back, and feet are killing me right now. I also finally turned 18 last thursday so I will be getting in on some UMC OR action starting wednesday. Lung and Neurosrugery here I come!

Molly

Almost on Highway 61

Started taking a closer look at my samples--a tad disappointing. Only a couple of samples have any obvious hair of unknown origin. I will email my off campus advisor for help.

I've gotten sick, again. Most likely an infection contracted from an angry feline encounter at work (literally cat scratch fever). I leave for Minnesota on Wednesday for four days. Since we're just going to be visiting family I will have plenty of time to work. My mother and I are going to visit Macalester, and hopefully Carleton but that possibility is very slim.

Hope you're all happy and healthy!

Katharine

Bibliotheque Blitzkrieg.

As I enter the final stretch of my stay in Tunisia, I am trying, with the aid of my family, to exhaust every possible source of information available to me. My trip to the Bayt Al Hikma was disastrous. My aunt took me to the Bayt Al Hikma (which, comically, means "House of Wisdom" in Arabic) at the suggestion of my uncle's sister. We entered the library, which fit in perfectly near the carthiginian ruins on the beach and i noticed a tombstone near the entry sitting on a plot of grass. I read the inscription and found that the grave belonged to a Tunisian writer and philosopher named Ibn Khaldun. I was pleasantly surprised, since I had been told to look up Khaldun's writing about the movement of political power, so I took the fact that this man was buried under the Bayt Al Hikma, foolishly, as a good omen.
My aunt and I entered the building and were directed to an office within the building stuffed with a few glass-paned cabinets whose shelves were lined with books. We were greeted by a librarian, a short man, who my Aunt addressed and asked for books written by Ibn Khaldun. The man hurried off to search for them. As he was leaving the room, a woman approached us and asked my Aunt if she could help us. My aunt asked her if there were any books about "tribes," to which the woman replied, "No. No, no, no, no."
I was disappointed that the woman dismissed our inquiry so quickly, but immediately after she shot us down the man returned. He held in his hand a single book. It was not written by Ibn Khaldun, but about him, which was relatively useless to me. My aunt asked if that was the only thing they had. Evidently, it was. I should have felt disappointed or upset, but the whole ordeal was just too absurd. The encounter took no longer than a minute and a half and it ended in such an anti-climax. For god's sake, the writer I was looking for was literally buried beneath the library, yet they supposedly had nothing written by him at all. The four of us stood in silence, my aunt and I on one side of the door of the office facing the two librarians on the other, waiting for something to happen. As it became more and more evident that we would have no luck, my aunt uttered simply, "Well, I guess that's it," and we left.
Today I went to the market with my uncle to get some food for a party my family is throwing tonight. Afterwards, we stopped by the Mediatheque Charles De Gaul to see if I would have better luck there than I did at Bayt al Hikma. Unfortunately, it was closed, which means that I will have to check it later this week. I will also be going to a second "Bibliotheque National" near the Sooks, a vast trading network located in the ancient streets of Tunis, as well as to "La Marsa" Library. Hopefully I'll find something useful.
- Duncan

Inner-workings of Grad students

So during my time at the U of A I not only get to work in the lab, I also get to sit in on different types of meetings. So one meeting that happens every week is a group meeting; basically, everyone from the lab gets together and talks about what they have done. Another meeting I attend is the CRC meetings. These meetings last just as long as a group meeting, but they consist of many more people (several labs attend these). These meetings are very interesting. Recently, two graduate students have been trying to publish a paper, but first the professors critique the papers. It is really fascinating watching everyone just sit around digest and suggest better ways to word a certain passage to make it more clear.
The most interesting meeting I have seen yet was yesterday. Apparently, there is a huge competition every year that every grad student participates in. The competition gives the winner money to continue their research. So, yesterday, the finalists were presenting their research. I could actually understand almost everything they were talking about! So there were four different finalists who all researched very different topics. The topics that I saw were semi-conductor research, astrochemistry through spectroscopy (this woman found four new compounds in space), research about a certain drug to help pain, cancer detection research. All of these topics were so interesting. It was fun to see all these people get together and even if they weren't from the same field of science ask the finalists intelligent questions. The astrochemistry student won!

Us or Them

Good news! My advisor just hit me upt o write an article for the front page of the park's newspaper. After talking with him for a while, we decided that I should write about how the Hohokam people used the resources of the desert, and how their cultural impact can still be seen on many of our trails. I'll be sure to write more on here as I further delve myself into research and the oh-so-fun drafting process!

On a slightly different note, I finished yet another course today on the organization of the NPS, and all the different laws and legalities that come into play. By the time I finish here, I'll have more certificates than I have room for!

2 chapters left!

It may not have been the greatest idea trying to make a comic out of an entire novel. I'm only just now on Chapter 11 (out of 12). I'll be able to finish my rough draft of the whole novel, but I'm only going to refine (and pencil and maybe ink) only a small portion.
I've been spending a lot of time on www.posemaniacs.com (thank you for showing me that site, Sara) trying to get human body proportions down and learn more about anatomy and such. I think I've finally got the lady-hips right.

Wish me luck!
Siobhan

PS Here are some pictures of my progress:

As Smitten As That

I have officially completed both the Interpretive Writing program that was purchased for me, as well as a History of the NPS course. As the days trickle on, I consistently feel like I am learning and absorbing so much through each opportunity.
Erin, Estee and I are all going to be finishing our terms here on the same date, so they are planning a special dinner for us at the Mosaic Cafe on the evening of April 26th.
Other than that, I do not have much fresh news to pass on.. I hope everybody else's internships are going splendidly!

Molly

got into Penn. Yahoo!