Week 7

I find it hard to believe it has been 7 weeks, the time seems to be racing.
I have spent a lot of time this week learning new skills and developing ideas and plans for the upcoming weeks. I had to learn to use Excel so I can collate data and for one reason or another I kept putting it off. When I met with Elise on Thursday she suggested I map out on paper what I want to see at the end, or how I want to use it. This helped greatly and just having a go meant I could get there. It is interesting to reflect on this, because intially I was thinking this is hard but once I had a go, and asked a couple of pertinent questions I found I could do it. I wonder how often kids are faced with this scenario.
I am getting people coming up to me in the supermarket, on the street, and in other places asking about what I am doing and giving me their own rock pool stories. Most of them I know, but some I haven't. This has all come about because of the article in the Taranaki Daily News a few weeks ago. They all understand what I am doing as well and think that it is a good thing to help science teaching back at school.
The tides and weather have been against me getting down to the beach and this has been a little frustrating. This is also part of what scientists do, it's not all field work, there is reading, data analysis, using the things that have been found out. In this respect I have been putting some of my photos and videos on to the Nga Motu Marine Reserve kete so that others can see what can be found there. Here is a link to have a look.
http://ketenewplymouth.peoplesnetworknz.info/nga_motu_marine_reserve_society/topics/show/89-images