Week 17

Time seems to be moving really quickly and I am running out of weeks. I spent a lot of this week making graphs in Excel with the data I had collected from my transects. I certainly got quicker at making them as I went.
Monday was back on the beach in the morning, there were lots of bluebottles washed up because of the wild weather we had had. There was also a prion on the beach washed up but still alive. Last Friday when I was at the beach I photographed a bird I hadn't seen before. I couldn't identify it from the bird books I got out of the library either. A few emails later I found out it was a wandering tattler. They are infrequent visitors to our shores from Alaska and Eastern Siberia. I was quite pleased to get a shot of it on the beach.

I spent Tuesday back in Stratford looking through the microscope for species in soft sediment samples. Wednesday and Thursday were back in front of the laptop typing up about what I have been doing and what I have found out. Friday was more of the same but I did get down to the beach for a short while.
  Friday lunchtime I took my daughter to get some lunch, she had just finished her level 3 exams. Anyway waiting for our food we overheard a woman telling the owners that allergies were caused by all the additives in food these days and that 4 out of 5 children now have allergies and this is the reason why. My time around scientists and workiong with science made my ears prick at this. Really I thought to myself, what evidence is there, what proof is there, what studies have linked these two things, or is it just what someone thinks and it gets repeated often enough then people will beleive it without asking questions. Thankfully in the car my daughter thought the comments were wrong too. It reminded me of another time when a man my wife was interviewing firmly believed there were more rips at beaches these days because there were more ships off our coast. This is a true story. Thankfully science makes me ask questions, even though I might not always get the right answers I know where or how to research to find out. This is a skill we need to teach as well.

Week 16

Eight chitons on one stone! This was the sight that got me excited during one of my quadrats on Friday morning. Eight Chiton glaucus Green Chitons together on one stone. I finished counting other things in the quadrat before I took a photo. As I held the stone I could see them moving, sliding slowly away from the top of the rock. With the photo quickly taken they were back where they had come from.

It is sights like this that get me excited on the beach, large cats eyes, lots of little half crabs scurrying away from under a rock, the quadrats that are almost 100% sandy tubeworm, and some of the really big limpets I have seen lately. It illustrattes how well I am getting to know this area and the how much I am noticing within the marine reserve. It has been the continual working in the marine environment and having the chance to observe and research in one specific area that is bringing me this depth of knowledge and understanding. I did spot a seabird that I couldn't identify on my way back though. It sounded like an oyster catcher, but it was grey, will need to some more research on that one next week. 
Spent lots of the week writing, there are only a few short weeks left and a few things I need to complete, and some things I want to finish. This has also meant a chance for reflection on all the things I have done and learnt as well as more thinking about what is the nature of science. I had a session with Elise learning more about using Excel and have produced a couple of quick graphs about some of the things I found.

As well as all the species and science I am learning about, Tapuae Marine reserve is a beautiful place to be as the view back to Moturoa Island shows.

Week 15

Another varied and interesting week doing science. I managed to get back down to my beach, that is how I think of Tapuae Marine Reserve, for a little look around after being away all last week. It is always nice to go back and notice changes and see what has stayed the same. The most noticeable diffeerence being the level of sand that has built up, it was up over the a rock I usually climb down on. In the rock pools themselves there weren't as many changes and I just had a bit of a look around. I did the same on Tuesday afternoon.
I had spent both mornings writing on my laptop, there are a few tasks to get done and so I thought I needed to make a start. This was also the reason I wanted to head sown to the beach to clear my head.
I met with Elise on Wednesday to talk about imputting my data from my first survey. I have spent some time imputting that data into Excel since then, not exciting work, but got to be done. The data is going to be entered onto GIS maps at some stage and in some form. We also discussed the most useful way of doing this for other visitors to the reserve, or intersted people looking on-line.

Thursday was a imputting and writing day, but Friday was more intersting.I went with Brian, a TRC monitoring scientist to set up buckets for air monitoring. It was a case of setting up buckets with water in them in the field. They are left for a number of weeks and then collected in. the water is then filterd and tested to see what particles and other things are in the air. They were set up around the waste refuge site and industrial sites in Fitzroy. Was really good to help and also to see another process to collect data being put into action. These are the different things I am learning and seeing in action, and the reason I am enjoying this Fellowship and consider myself lucky.

These are some signs we saw last week at Leigh. They are educational and emphasise the positive. maybe we need something like this at Tapuae Marine Reserve.

Week 14

What a week! Have spent the week looking and being involved in science with three other teacher fellows. Met Nadia, Sherryl, and Rita at Auckland Airport and we headed towards Leigh.
Our first stop was at Whangateau where we met Samara and Greg from Experiencing Marine Reserves. EMR encourage classes to visit and snorkel in our marine reserves, to find out more about what they do check out their website http://www.emr.org.nz/ but for us it meant we got to go snorkelling. Whangateau is an estuary and so we looked around some mangroves. They look like asparagus growing under the sea. There were also cockles, oysters, and closer to the channel there were large Neptunes Necklace, some jellyfish and fish. After lunch we snorkelled at Goat Island in the Leigh Marine Reserve. Samara said later that it was a less than an average day. We learnt lots though and saw good healthy kelp as well as snapper, john dory, and other fish. From there we went to where we were staying and Samara gave us a presentation about EMR. It really was great day and we experienced science in action as well as ideas of how we can put it into action.
Tuesday saw us spend the day with Rebecca Goffin. She is the manager of the Auckland University Information Centre at Leigh Marine Reserve. We had a tour of the facility and discussed the nature science for the day and how it might apply to a visit to the centre, or in a wider range of settings. It was an excellent day and we learnt a lot, and have a lot to reflect on. For more of what they do there visit http://www.marine.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/. After that we visited two teachers in Warkworth who have had fellowships or about to have. It is good to network with other teachers.
Wednesday we visied Tawharanui. We took part in an ecology walk that took us along the beach and then up through a manuka area, over farmland and then down through native bush. Rita has been working in this type of environment and so she was able to tell us a lot about the birds and the bush. Again it was a case of seeing science in action and things we could do.
Thursday we headed back into Auckland and visited Hohepa, another teacher fellow at Unitec. He showed us what he is up too with inscets and pit traps. We also talked to Glenys, an awarded teacher fellow, working with lichens. That night we went to Patsy's and had a delicious BBQ and met up with a lot of the other teacher fellows from Auckland.
Friday we went to visit Patsy at The Liggins Institute. Again it was really good to see what other teacher fellows are up to. She is doing some genetic experiments with vinegar flies. Easy to do in a classroom setting too. There were a lot of science posters a way of presenting science information. This is something we had seen at Leigh and at Unitec and a good idea for taking back to school for presenting information.
All in all a great week, I learnt a lot and there is a lot to take in that I will reflect on and will come out in some way over the next few weeks.

This weeks video is of our two snorkelling adventures, enjoy, I did.