Clearly state why the core facts and concepts of the work at hand matter to me or to others. One of my goals coming into this semester was to use the resources that are available to me. As a senior going into my last semester at High Tech High, one of the things that I have regretted the most was that I did not ask to use some of the many things that we are able to use as a High Tech High student. This semester I have tried to work on this skill by setting my bars high, learning how to use many things including the underwater housing, GoPros, and other DLSRs. As my semester project, Savannah and I are trying to tag sharks in the San Diego area. This is a very ambitious task that at many points in the semester have seemed that it will not work out. However, we have persevered through these struggles and are still working towards this goal. This work is very important to me because as a child growing up watching Jaws and Sharknado, I have been instilled with fear for these creatures. From this fear stemmed curiousness and for the past few years, I have been very interested in knowing more about these creatures. By tracking these sharks (hopefully juvenile white sharks) we will be able to see where these sharks move, depth, and from this information where/what they eat. Describe myself as a learner and seek out challenges that lead to growth. This semester I believe that I have done a great job challenging myself. The reason I decided to apply for Semester Azul was because I was unsatisfied with the projects that I had completed at High Tech High and wanted to do something that I was actually proud of. I also knew that Semester Azul provided me with the freedom to pick the project that I would want to do. I decided to be very ambitious with my project and right now I am attempting to tag a shark. I have been challenged at every step of the process. I started off the project by emailing professionals in the field . of shark research because I was too nervous to talk to them over the phone. I quickly learned that people won't email you back if you start with "Hello I'm a high school student attempting to tag a great white shark and I don't know anything about tagging sharks" (a bit over exaggerated but it gets the point across) At this point in the project I am constantly calling professional, still sounding like a fool, but a fool thats getting information. I can describe a complex question, problem, or issue and its relevance to myself and the world. The effects of global warming on ocean ecosystems. One of the main contributors to global warming is the release of greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere. These greenhouse gasses stay in our atmosphere and trap the heat that is trying to escape from our planet thus warming our planet. The ocean absorbs much of this heat which negatively affects aquatic ecosystems due to habitat destruction, loss of prey, and change in deep water tides. One of these greenhouse gasses is Carbon Dioxide. While CO2 is a necessity for life, too much of anything can be detrimental to any organism. The ocean absorbs 93% of the CO2 in our atmosphere which lowers the ph levels thus making the ocean more acidic. All organisms require a specific ph level and any fluctuations in this level can negative consequences. Global warming also changes the deep ocean currents such as the global conveyor belt which is caused by changes in water density at the caps and other factors such as the moon, weather, and temperature. The global conveyor belt helps to distribute nutrients and also changes weather patterns. As the ocean waters heat up, the global conveyor belt slows down changing the earth's climate. Affects caused by slowing in the global conveyor belt include loss of nutrients and change in weather patterns. These two factors greatly affect human lives by creating massive storms and damaging our fisheries. Show evidence of my environmental stewardship and why it matters Since joining Semester Azul, I have done a lot of deep thinking about my affect on the earth. The reason that I started thinking was because during one of the snorkeling trips that I had taken I saw a plastic sandwich bag floating next to, the very same type of bag that I use on a daily basis. This got me thinking about all of the one time plastics that I use once and then throw it away after. Since then I have tried to limit the amount of one- time plastics that I use whether its not using a straw at a restaurant, carrying a reusable water bottle with me everywhere I go, or using tupperware instead of plastic bags. Today in the age of consumerism, it is easy to use plastics and throw it away without thinking about the consequences that your actions have. Just a quick stroll along the beach has shown me that our way of living in not sustainable and needs radical changes. Seeing all the plastics and other waste lying on our beaches makes me wonder: If this little amount of land is so polluted, how much trash are in our oceans? It's almost daily that I hear about the amount of micro plastics found in fish, whales, and many other species. Even the deep ocean is affected by these plastics because of deep ocean currents. Environmental stewardship doesn't only matter, it is necessary to ensure a bright and healthy for all species. I can work productively with others toward shared goals, doing my part in a timely manner. This semester I am working with Savannah to build a shark tag and hopefully this summer we will be ready to tag a shark. This is a very ambitious goal and we are working very hard to make this happen. Throughout the process, we have had to revise our plan because of many issues. We started by emailing many people already in the field to no avail. From there we started watching videos, reading scientific articles and tried to find any information that could help us in this process. From there we started looking into the tags specifically trying to figure out what tags we should use, how much it would cost, and if we would even be allowed to do it. After weighing the pros and cons of each tracker we have narrowed it down to a category of trackers called satellite tags. The reason for this is mainly because of the cost. Other tags such as acoustic tags require thousands of dollars worth of equipment to use while satellite trackers just need access to a satellite and a shark to be tagged. This brings up another problem for us which is access to a satellite. We have already submitted a proposal through High Tech High to an organization called ARGOS that has many satellites orbiting earth right now. They also sell tags that are made to communicate with the ARGOS satellite and tell us information such as depth, temperature, and location. Choose a mode of communication that fits my purpose and my audience As a said above, I started my .project by emailing a bunch of experts to get more information on their areas of research. I quickly realized that this was not a very good method of communication because not very many people have the time to email a high school student in the middle of a busy day. Out of around 30 emails that I sent two people replied, out of those two people one person didn't come close to any of my question and was a little condescending and the other person gave me good information about tags. I then realized that if I wanted people to answer me back then I would have to show that I was serious about doing the project by showing the work that I had previously done and I would also need to talk to them on the phone. This proved to be a greater success than emails. e
At the beginning of the semester I was unsatisfied with the math workload but now I am very happy with the amount of math that we have been doing. I just finished doing U substitution and now i'm moving into integration by parts. Below is some of the math that I've been doing. I took a MOOC course on ocean fisheries. In this course I learned about the trophic levels and why ocean ecosystems were so fragile. I thought that this course was fascinating because I learned a lot about ocean ecosystems and it also compared ocean trophic levels to land trophic levels. One fact that I learned that I thought was interesting was that when an organism eats another organism about 90% of energy is lost. This means that if at the fourth trophic level 99.9% of the energy is lost between prey and predator.
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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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