iUTAH Undergraduate iFellows

 

Week 4 Recap

June 6-10, 2016

 

Joydino Beyale

My week four with the program was interesting. I helped Dr Randy Martin and Dr. Ryan Dupont with their presentations on air and water quality. The presentations were on USU campus in the engineering building. I also learned more on programming the Hoboware software, the transducer, and transferring the data into the computer from one device to another. I also collected rainwater from drains on USU campus on Saturday, I was so excited to collect and preserve some rainwater drainage samples, with the help of my peer mentor Darianne Willey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heather Bottelberghe

This week was more of the same. Andrew and I continued to map the irrigation gutters in Cache Valley and digitized the curbs in ArcGIS.

 

I also became familiar with ResearchIR which is the software we are using to extract frames from thermal infrared (IR) video taken by Maggi Kraft on Swaner Preserve in Park City. I will be mosaicking the IR images to visually represent the radiant temperature of the water in Swaner Preserve. The finished mosaic will be used to identify locations where incoming water temperature varies. Maggi is studying the effect of variant water temperatures on the health and existence of aquatic life that reside in Swaner Preserve. 

 

 

 

Katelyn Boyer

In the lab that I am working in this summer there are several different grad students all with their own research projects. One of my goals for this summer is to gain a broader understanding of how to do research and the different types. This week I accompanied Terra in her research project at Rush Valley which is an hour and a half west of Provo. At Rush Valley there are 5 plots that experience different conditions to see how it affects the plants in the area. For this week I learned how to collect biomass, frequency of plants and, the variation of the plants. Overall this week has been a good learning experience to help me broaden my horizon.

 

 

 

 

 

Todd Brown

This week I worked a lot on the stage vs. flow data on the confluence. I still have a lot to do, but I have been calculating the residual while taking into account the error on the data. From this data, we will be able to better determine the affect flow has on the river. I also have been writing my introduction and methods and working on the research assignments on canvas. I also started doing some literature review on previous work done on the Lower Bear River.

 

 

Darcie Christensen

This week didn’t go quite as planned, but it was still a good week. Monday and Tuesday, I was able to finish up the samples for IRMS analysis, so hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks, those results will be back. I was supposed to get trained on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment so I could begin analysis on extracted bacteria from soil samples, but the biology lab that we have to go to for use of the equipment was booked with a high-priority project. Pratibha and I should be able to get in the lab on Tuesday to get trained though, so the PCR analysis should get rolling next week. Pratibha and I met to discuss the data for the allometric equations that need to be developed and she answered a lot of the questions I had. That led to organizing data and beginning work on those equations. I made a lot of progress on the introduction section of my paper and finished up the first draft of the introduction and methods sections for my poster as well.

 

 

Georgie Corkery

This week my mentor and I discussed how we would want to incorporate Frog Bench Farms into our research. Together we came up with using Frog Bench as model, not in a case study sense, to create a hypothetical environmentally sustainable urban agribusiness that could feed a larger percentage of Salt Lake throughout the year. I would use parts of their operational data to parameterize a hypothetical example (water use, labor, yield, etc.). I could possibly mix this data with data from other urban agribusinesses.

 

I am defining environmentally sustainable as net zero energy, water, and nutrients. Net zero energy entails using renewable energy (solar, wind) to generate on site lighting, growth, pumping, storing, etc. Net zero water entails using a rainwater harvest system similar to the one at Frog Bench, and possibly a graywater system as ways to use local water in a drip irrigation system. Net zero nutrients entails using household waste, animal waste, and compost as source of nutrients to organically fertilize crops.

Though I am still working on my other two water use in urban agriculture projects, I am going to focus on using Frog Bench Farms as an environmentally sustainable urban agribusiness for my iUTAH poster, presentation, and paper. It has been exciting to see different growing systems and what they require to succeed as a continuation of my mentor’s long-term study of urban agriculture, and developing this farm model will be a fun contribution! 

 

 

Cynthia Elliott

This week was quite busy! We went to a few different public events to invite people to take our survey. We're almost at 200 respondents! We even went to some interesting meetings to learn more about the project we are working to help. Luis, Taya, Dr. Brunson, and I had another planning session where we mapped out our next few weeks. We (meaning all the iFellows) wrote a prospectus for our individual research papers and decided on a focus for the project. It took me a few days, but I finally decided on a topic. I was able to meet with Dr. Brunson to discuss how our project is going, as well as to get some insight on my focus area of the project. He helped send me in the right direction to write my introduction and methods section of my poster. 

 

 

 

Andrew Hackett

This week we continued to map the urban areas of Logan. It was incredibly hot and much of the city we covered didn't really have many large trees for shade or the flood irrigation we were looking for, but we needed to check for a complete map to be constructed. Through our travels it became apparent how much the Logan area has grown recently! Some streets and full neighborhoods weren't even on our reference maps! It was interesting to note the patterns of development going through the towns, and the ways people were using their water.

 

 

 

 

Greta Hamilton

The first half of the week was spent prepping last week's water from the 24 hour sampling at the Provo river. We will start analysis in the next week. It was very interesting to see the progression of color in the sample bottles as the day progressed from noon to midnight. I have enclosed a photo for everyone else to see. The bottles are samples from Soapstone that will be run as the unfiltered Hg early next week. Thursday, we conducted our normal weekly river sampling from Soapstone, Woodland, and Hailstone. 

 

 

 

 

Stacy Henderson

This week was a busy one. I continued to organize water use data, started cleaning and analyzing it, and worked on comparing data for four counties of the ten contained in the Wasatch Range Metropolitan Area (WRMA). Because I’m new to this type of work, I started a spreadsheet to help me track trends I find. Meanwhile, I joined Maura Hahnenberger on Wednesday, June 8, for a Bio-Blitz near Timpanogos Cave catching and documenting bats. That was really fun and I recommend everyone take part in this at least once. Finally, I started work on the introduction and methods portion of my poster. It’s a very rough draft right now as I’m still knee deep in trying to analyze data, but I look forward to refining it as I continue with my project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebecca Lee

This week sampling was done at the Logan sites so that we will be able to test them for contamination. Also, I was able to participate in research at Rush Valley. I was able to work on my poster and paper and start putting in words the reason why our research is so important and the methods behind what we are doing.

 

 

 

Gabriela Martinez

This week was all about finishing the introduction and methods section of my poster. I also started reading and compiling articles for my literature review. My near-peer mentor Pratiti showed me a way to organize and categorize all of the articles that I might be using on my paper, in a way that not only would allow me to understand what I'm reading better, but that it will also allow me to focus on information that is relevant to our research. I would have to say that, staying focused on only our project questions and nothing else has been the most difficult part of doing research thus far. There are so many interesting things to read about and research, that sometimes it can be hard to stay on point, or focused on our project and not let my mind wander off... When this happens, I am very lucky to have amazing mentors that take the time to guide me and reel me in when needed.

 

 

Mitchell Steele

During the last five days I have been writing and re-writing the literature review for my project. It has been exhausting yet thrilling. Being an undergraduate student, I feel that I'm not academically prepared for this level of academic writing, or for that matter, this level of research!  I am so grateful to my wonderful mentors and this program for allowing me to grow and learn so much this summer. I love being part of something that is this meaningful and that everyone in the program is so passionate about. I also enjoy being able to go home every day and share with my family all the things that I learn, especially with my children. I try to instill in them respect and appreciation for our natural resources.

 

 

 

Shanae Tate

It's been a busy week as I've determined where most of the shifts occurred in the soil moisture data using Loggernet, a program from Campbell Scientific.  With this information we are on our way to the next step, which is to calculate the new calibration constants!  I've also been rewriting my prospectus, introduction, and methods and have learned even more about soil-water relations.  

 

On Friday I went with Hyrum and Dave to take the discharge measurements at the Franklin Basin, Tony Grove, and Water Lab Aquatic Sites.  There is much to be learned about these sites, so stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

Luis Vidal

This week we attended a community stakeholder meeting where we talked and met with the developers and frontrunners of the three creeks project. Earlier in the day we also surveyed at a free lunch in the park event at Sherwood park. There we got an excellent number of responses from the Poplar Grove neighborhood. After the stakeholder meeting we attended the public meeting at the Glendale Community library. We returned to Salt Lake again that week for more surveys and spent the week working on our intro and methods section of our paper. 

 

 

Lily Wetterlin

This week was a busy week filled with lots of fieldwork! I have finally collected all of the samples I will need for my project.  I have collected stem and leaf samples from 60 trees across the Salt Lake Valley to test for water sourcing and nitrogen availability in relation to plot size.  I am excited to start prepping my samples to run in the following weeks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam Whalen

After another week of research, I feel as if my project is finally beginning to shift gears. While my time thus far has been spent scouring academic databases, this week I broke out SPSS and began preliminary coding. Even though the secondary data collection is integral to a project such as this, it is nice to finally begin working on something else. This all started with a quick refresher on the software Wednesday with my mentors. It has been close to a year since I have coded and processed survey data, so practicing commands and proper scripting was jarring at first. My mentors were exceptionally patient through my struggles with the program. My next challenge will be taking the raw data I have collected and cleaning it up, thereby allowing for me to compare it to the iUTAH data sets.

 

This week also marked the first conceptualizations of my forthcoming research poster. I have begun toying with how I want to present my research aesthetically. At the last cohort session, Scott Bates gave us some fantastic tips on how to make an intriguing poster. I have been taking his ideas and fusing them with my own artistic inclinations. Considering my background in advertising, I’ve been using some of the aesthetic principles I have learned and applying them to this poster. I must say I am excited to share my thoughts with the other iFellows. Furthermore, I crafted an initial draft of my introduction and methods portion for our cohort session on Monday. While it certainly was a unique beast to tackle, I used parts of my prospectus which was, in essence, a poster-esque summation of my research.

 

In preparation for the aforementioned cohort session, I plan on reading the weekly updates of other iFellows. It has been several weeks since I have seen them in person, so it should be fun to see how their research has been going.

 

 

Sandra Udy (Young)

This week I have had the opportunity to learn about the DNA-SIP process. SIP stands for stable isotope probing. It uses an isotope of an element like nitrogen or carbon. This nutrient is added with bacteria, for example, and the bacteria digest the nutrient. Because the isotope is different than what would normally be taken up, the nutrient can be tracked in the bacterial DNA. This is done by collecting the bacterial DNA. This week I used a DNA processing kit to prepare the DNA for analysis. This will be put into a centrifuge. The centrifuge will separate DNA with the isotope (because it is a different density). The DNA that has the isotope in it can then be compared with DNA from a bacterial DNA database. This way I can determine which types of DNA are using the nutrient.