After all of the snow days and rescheduling I finally presented my Senior Project and it is officially over! Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way.
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After completing the four posters and mounting them to be hung up, I've turned my attention to the websites. They are mostly complete, just some final edits left.
Sargassum: http://ocohen15.wix.com/sargassumbiocube Atlantic: http://ocohen15.wix.com/atlanticbiocube Gulf: http://ocohen15.wix.com/gulfbiocube Mangrove: http://ocohen15.wix.com/mangrovebiocube I have finished another two posters, and the last one should be done by tonight. I can't believe I am almost done! I have been working on this project for a long time and it will be nice to see it complete this week.
Over the winter break I continued working on identifications and formatting the other three posters. The first poster is currently being printed and should arrive any day. I also made the layout for my four websites to accompany the posters and two of them are nearly done.
Today I made four QR codes, one for each poster, in order to put more detailed information on websites and still have the posters be interesting without too much text.
Over the week of Thanksgiving break I finished half of a rough draft of all the written information for my posters. Now, I just need to finish it up, edit it, and finish the identifications so I can create the posters online and have them sent out for printing.
After having finished all of the necessary research, I am beginning writing up all of the content for my poster. I'm finding it a bit difficult to keep focus though, being that I just had knee surgery last friday. A minor setback, but I'm working through it.
I have been doing even more research over this week, but it's all coming together and I should be ready to write next week.
Over the past week I have been doing copious amounts of research for the written part of my poster. In the next couple of weeks or so I plan to have all of the material written out and ready to be put on a rough draft of the poster.
Over the past week I have been working on a basic template on a website (postermywall.com) that will format and print my posters. I have also been figuring out all of the information I need to complete the posters in time.
This last week has not been as productive as I would have liked. I rough edited around 30 more photos, but there is still a lot of editing to do. This week I would like to put together a rough layout of the four posters I am creating.
Over the past few days I have been trying to get back into the swing of things, deal with jet lag, and make up all of the work I missed. It's all getting kind of stressful. Last friday I completed and turned in my rubric for my final product, which will be four posters, one for each location, giving detail about the area, its importance, environmental and human factors, overall biodiversity, key species found in the Biocube, interesting finds, and a full species list and count.
Today I arrived safely back in the USA after an amazing trip to the Solomon Islands studying marine biology. To tie things together, we even got to do a Biocube on one of our last days in the Western Province. It was astonishing how much more diversity there was compared to the Florida Keys, just in the actual Biocube (without fish) we had over 140 species. Now that I'm back, its time to get to work.
Today I put together aspects of my project that I could work on while away in the Solomon Islands for three weeks. Everything is on a flash drive and ready to go... I just need to pack before Thursday!
I've been at it again, editing the massive amount of photos I have. Everything is coming along slowly but surely.
Today was my last day in the Florida Keys to conduct my project. I packed away all of my materials and only brought back what I would need to present with my project (the biocube and the few materials necessary for conducting the investigation). Tomorrow I will head back up to New York for school and continuing my senior project.
Today on the incoming tide I placed my Biocube in a section of the mangroves with my GoPro set up. I placed the Biocube in one foot of 88.6º F water at the coordinates 25º 5' 3"N 80º 26' 40" W. After several hours I removed the sample and sorted through the specimens and photographed them. For this Biocube my species count without the fish came out to twenty species.
After unpacking the car, I began setting up my lab in Key Largo for the last time. I used two pieces of poster board for my photography station and made sure all of my containers were cleaned with fresh water. Once that was all finished, I reassembled my Biocube and wrote out the identification numbers, this time MAN_###, to stand for mangrove. To ensure I had a spot that I believed had the most biodiversity, I did a survey of the mangroves on kayak and by foot and found the best area on our property in conjunction to a canal that allowed larger organisms to pass through. Finally, I checked the tides for tomorrow so I could place my Biocube in the water on an incoming tide for maximum water flow.
I spent today packing up my lab in Key West to conduct my final Biocube in Key Largo. I left a decent amount of equipment behind and only brought what was necessary for the last Biocube. Hopefully I did not forget anything.
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Olivia Cohen
Welcome to my blog for my senior project, An Investigation in Marine Biodiversity: Florida Keys. Over the summer I will be conducting four Biocubes (further explained in "About") in several locations in the Florida Keys. |