The CSI Project was a project that we did in Biology to learn about how people solve crimes. The science that we used went really in-depth and gave insight into how these crimes are really solved not just how they look on TV. We did things like blood typing, skeletal analysis, DNA testing, fingerprinting, entomology and mitochondrial DNA to help solve our crime scenes. There were a total of 3 crime scenes, all utilizing relatively the same sciences to solve them but each with their own required skill sets.
Something that I personally really enjoyed with this project was the fact that there were 3 different types of crime scenes, and each was unique. Normally detectives are only investigating one, but we could see 3 different aspects of crime scenes during exhibition. I also really liked the insight into how these types of crimes are solved as this is one of the few professions that I would really like to get into, becoming a CSI or Detective. I also really liked learning about this type of science as this all can be applied in a real world job and its something that I am interested in! My engagement in this project was also really good, I felt that I could do really well if I did my part and I did it really well. I also had a great time working with my partner, and I would definitely love to do future projects like this type!
Community Connection
Our community connection was something that was required of us for this school year, involving us volunteering for different business or a certain project around the Durango area. My community connection was working with Colleen, our teacher, and helping make little packets of seeds to send to Elementary schools around the country to help plant more flowers which in turn could help save our dwindling population of Honey Bees. My specific job was writing up a paragraph or so detailing why exactly its important to save the flowers, and always plant more. And also how Bees play an extreme role in our ecosystem, and without them we wouldn't have a lot of things we eat today such as vegetables and fruits. This was something that I enjoyed a lot, as this is something that interests me. Helping save species like this is always fun for me, and im glad that I got the opportunity to help this cause.
Below is my particular part in my community connection, writing a paragraph that would be attached to the packet of seeds.
Dissection Project
The dissection project was probably the most interesting project of the whole year, as you might think. I personally dissected a Dogfish Shark, which is a small, bottom-feeder shark that thrives all around the world. The project started out by going through the process of making sure we knew each part of the shark before we started investigating the inside of the specimen. After that, we started to poke around inside the body of the shark, finding all sorts of extremely interesting things that I never knew about this type of shark. For example, their kidneys are just a small tubing that runs the length of their body, not like human kidneys where as they are shaped like little beans. The final part was writing up a packet explaining all the different things that we found during our dissection which lasted roughly two weeks. And for the final part of the project, we had to video tape a written final exam explaining all the different parts of our specimen. Overall, this was an extremely fun project, and besides the horrid smell, I would love to do it again!
Below you can find pictures of a Dogfish shark as reference, as my final video is not uploaded to YouTube.
Monkey Meal Planning
The Monkey Meal Planning project was a little project we did to make meal plans utilizing certain foods for chimps. Below you can find my meal plan and recipe.
Durango nature studies project
The Durango Nature Studies project was a project that we do annually at Animas High School, and it is to monitor certain aspects of the ecosystem around the Durango Nature Studies Property. Our goal is to better improve the ecosystem that the Durango Nature Studies property is built on, this includes monitoring things like phosphates in the river, measuring pH levels in the pond, gathering data on the current frog population there and taking samples of the water back to further analyze. The first part of the writing piece was the Habitat Assessment, Executive Summary and Species Overview, which aimed to identify certain aspects of the Durango Nature Studies property and give an assessment on the current species living there. The next part was making graphs and tables, which was an easy way to exhibit our data that we collected. And the final part was the Recommendations that we made to better the health and overall well being of the Durango Nature Studies habitat and property.