This semester has turned out to be a semester of great growth not only academically but but also personally. I have almost conquered my fear of the open ocean, gotten scuba certified, and have pushed the boundaries of what high school students can accomplish. I have also struggled this semester. I have never been in a classroom setting that was so open that we got to pick and pursue our own projects. Especially at the beginning of the semester I had a problem with creating a game plan and staying motivated to follow this plan. For science I believe that I deserve an A+. I have earned this grade by the work that I have done to learn more about sharks by communicating with experts in the field, getting access to a satellite network, finding a tag, and applying for a scientific collecting permit. While I am yet to tag a shark, I will do everything in my power to tag the shark during the summer. I have also been reading a book on the big bang throughout the semester in my free time. I have found this book fascinating learning about astrophysics and the history of astronomy. The book is called The Big Bang by Simon Singh and I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in astronomy. For math I believe I deserve an A. I have demonstrated my math skills with the math sheets Brian has passed out. I have also dabbled in wave forecasting, height of a wave and strength of a wave. The reason that I do not deserve an A+ is because I have not taken the initiative to study math outside of class. For art I believe I deserve an A. I have always been a terrible artist and because of my failures in art I have been unmotivated to try to do art. At demonstrated this mentality at the beginning of the semester when creating our first art pieces and my product represented this. As the semester progressed however, I saw the products that my piers were creating and I was motivated to make my work better. I began not only enjoying our diving session but looking for things that would inspire art. One realization I had was that underwater photography was extremely hard and that I was really bad at it. Because of this I decided to take as many pictures as I could and one of them would have to turn out well. In the end this dedication worked and I am extremely proud of my final product. Care of oneself- Put effort into my work and persist despite difficulties.
If there was anything that I could count on this semester it would be problems. I found that at every step of the way something went wrong. At the beginning of the project it was a little disheartening at times starting to plan new project instead. I had to think a lot about the risk of standing next to basically nothing for exhibition and having to explain why I had done no work. In deep thought I finally recognized that I was doing this project for the wrong reason. I knew that if I came home each and every day and could truly put my name on that day and say, "yes I have worked hard today" then it didn't matter if I stood next to nothing during exhibition because I knew I had done work. Care for the planet- Put time and effort into ensuring our local coastal environment is left better than I found it. Before this semester I was ignorant. I would use plastics like there was no consequences. I don't even want to see the waste that I created on a daily basis. This semester has really opened my eye to this growing problem that the oceans are facing and it scares me. That there is a island maybe of trash twice the size of Texas floating in the ocean that I love some much is as the same time scary and infuriating; scared for the wildlife and future generations, and infuriating at myself and others for being so oblivious to my impacts on the world. Since my awakening I have tried to limit my impact on the environment and opened my eyes to the litter that is in the environment. I never realized how much trash is scattered around our beaches until I was actually focused on finding it. Some changes that I have made to my life because of this semester is that I have started bringing a reusable water bottle everywhere I go and during lunch I have been using tuple ware instead of individual plastic bags. While I am very proud of myself for the changes that I have implemented, there is definitely more that I can be doing like going to more beach cleanups and using less plastic straws. I also need to give credit to Tessa Felice (Not sure what her blog url is) for showing how much impact I have on the world. While I do at times find her ideas radical, a radical problem requires a radical solution. Getting Along with One Another- Compassionate toward myself and others This semester my main goal was to better myself and others inside and outside the classroom. As a child I was a very active person playing multiple sports, going on long hikes, etc. but during my sophomore year I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease which meant that I could not play any sports and had to mainly stay indoors. Since then I do not believe that I have fully recovered. This semester however, I have tried to be a more active person by climbing, snorkeling, going mountain biking, and hiking. I have seen significant improvement in myself since then and can say that I am a happier and more confident person because of it. My favorite thing to do is climbing I have found that this is a very self fulfilling sport and have tried to help and share it with my piers.
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For my project this semester, I have been trying to tag a shark. At the beginning of this project my main goal was to learn more about sharks and with it I would learn more about the ocean. While I did learn more in these areas, I learned and gained skills that I will use throughout my life. In my project I contacted experts, researched shark tagging, and went through a long permit process. While we are yet to tag a shark, I will be working diligently throughout endersession and summer so that we can tag the shark.
Our project would be very important for both the scientific community and the public. To explain the problem that we are helping to solve we have to go back to the 1950's. At the start of the 50's America had a booming post-war economy, birthing rates were higher than ever, there was big leaps in science and mathematics every day, and the unemployment rates were the lowest that they had ever been. One species that was not profiting from this economic boom was sharks. Sharks were seen as vicious creature with the sole goal of devouring our unsuspected children. This caused mass hysteria and the shark populations dwindled. Fortunately, legislation was passed which protect sharks and the species slowly rose. Today the sharks have made a comeback and are almost are at the point of where they were at before human intervention. With these larger than normal population, shark sightings are getting more frequent and closer to the beach. Because of this researchers need to understand shark population better. One troubling area that we are yet to understand is in juvenile male white sharks. Usually these sharks would migrate throughout the year from the cooler waters of Canada to the warmer waters of Mexico. Instead of this yearly migration however, juvenile white sharks are staying between San Diego and Los Angelas. Our project was aimed at addressing this issue by tracking where these juvenile sharks are swimming, how deep they are swimming, and the light levels that they are swimming in. We started off this project by emailing experts already in the field of research. This included people from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, CSU Long Beach Shark Labs, and NOAA. We quickly discovered that people don't take high school students that are attempting to tag a shark seriously so out of about 30 people we emailed only 2 responded. Our next stage was to make cold calls which turned out to work way better. The next step was to find a tag that would work for our experimentation. The main components that we were looking for were price and attachment method. Surprisingly, this was the easiest part of the project. Within a week we had selected the tag and acquired the funding. Our next step was to get the proper permits. This ended up being a long and lengthy process that I am still working on today but once I get the proper permits I will be able to tag the shark. If we are able to make this work, it can and will be continued in the future. Once we get this news out to the scientific and educational communities it will lead to more funding for better and more advanced tags. Our tag will also provide important information to the scientific community which will help to find answers to questions that are troubling experts. Hopefully in the coming weeks we will be able to get the permits and tag a shark. |
Semester AzulThis semester I am in Semester Azul which is a class with around 20 students of all high school grade levels. We are exploring the vast mysteries of the ocean learning about the ecosystems, climate, and human influence. I hope you enjoy my progression!. Archives
May 2019
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