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Crime Scene Investigation
In our most recent project, Colleen set up "crime scenes" in her classroom and in other places around the school. We were assigned groups of two, and each group of two was assigned one crime scene. My partner and I were assigned to crime scene number two. In this scene, we were given a box of fake bones that were supposedly recovered from the San Juan National Forest by a couple walking their dog. Our assignment was to find out who the victim was, who killed them, and when. We used many real-life techniques to answer these questions, such as forensic entomology, DNA processing, and fingerprinting. The first step we took was to try and figure out who our victim was. First, we reconstructed the pelvis from the box of bones and examined the pelvic arch to determine the gender of the victim. The pelvic arch, an opening on the front of the pelvis, forms less than a 90 degree angle in males, and greater than 90 in females. The arch of our victim was less than 90 degrees, showing that the victim was male. We then examined the leg bones, using several equations to find the estimated height of our victim, which turned out to be 5'2"-5'7". The next step was to use a dermestid beetle that was found on the corpse to determine the time of death. We used a table to determine that a corpse with dermestid beetles that was completely dry was at least 3 years old. At this point in time, we were able to look at missing person reports that Colleen compiled for us from early 2010. We found two possible matches to our current criteria, and took one more step to pin down the victim. We looked at dental records from one potential victim and found that he had braces and several metal teeth, which our skull did not. This allowed us to be fairly certain that our victim was Nathan Herron. Just to be sure, we conducted a mitochondrial DNA test, which confirmed our suspicions. Now, knowing our victim, we went on to find the killer. We had several suspects, including Nathan's stepfather, best friend, and a man who had been heard claiming to have killed Nathan. We used blood samples found on the corpse's fingernails to eliminate Nathan's friend through a simple blood typing exercise. Finally, we conducted a DNA test on the blood found under the fingernails to pin down our culprit. Unfortunately, the results of our DNA test didn't match up with any of our suspects. This blood had been our only lead, so the case was dropped due to a lack of any new leads.
My favorite part of this whole process was that we actually got to work through the process of many of the things described above. It would've been very easy to just give us a worksheet or a set of labs to accomplish the same learning, but instead, we were able to integrate all of the concepts into one real-world application. This also gave the things we were doing more structure and logical progression. It made sense to go from one step to the next, where in a more traditional class, it could've just been a random order of different steps that were in no way connected. I really enjoyed working through the process of solving a crime not just because of it's curricular benefits, but also because it was much more interesting than many school assignments. It's not every day that you do bullet trajectory analysis in biology class!
If I could do this project again, the only thing I would really want to change is the end of the project. We had very little time at the end of the project to make our poster boards for exhibition (partially due to an untimely bout of springtime flu), and I think that my partner and I could've made a much more polished final board if we had more time to work on it. I think that the whole end of the project was a little rushed, which was very unfortunate, because the DNA process was one of the most interesting parts of the crime solving process. I was still pretty happy with what we came up with in the end, but I think a good project like this one deserved a more refined ending than the one that we had time to give it.
My favorite part of this whole process was that we actually got to work through the process of many of the things described above. It would've been very easy to just give us a worksheet or a set of labs to accomplish the same learning, but instead, we were able to integrate all of the concepts into one real-world application. This also gave the things we were doing more structure and logical progression. It made sense to go from one step to the next, where in a more traditional class, it could've just been a random order of different steps that were in no way connected. I really enjoyed working through the process of solving a crime not just because of it's curricular benefits, but also because it was much more interesting than many school assignments. It's not every day that you do bullet trajectory analysis in biology class!
If I could do this project again, the only thing I would really want to change is the end of the project. We had very little time at the end of the project to make our poster boards for exhibition (partially due to an untimely bout of springtime flu), and I think that my partner and I could've made a much more polished final board if we had more time to work on it. I think that the whole end of the project was a little rushed, which was very unfortunate, because the DNA process was one of the most interesting parts of the crime solving process. I was still pretty happy with what we came up with in the end, but I think a good project like this one deserved a more refined ending than the one that we had time to give it.
Dissection!
For the Dissection project, my partner and I dissected a fetal pig. We examined important systems such as the respiratory, digestive, and nervous systems. Our final product from this unit was a video walk-through of our dissected pig, which I will upload soon.
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Video Coming Soon!! |
Durango Nature Studies
For this project, we used our scientific writing skills to write a scientific paper about issues related to water quality and the invasion of Bullfrogs at Durango Nature Studies. To read my paper, click here.
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Ecological Solutions Project
During this project, we chose between a variety of ecological issues to focus our projects around. Our final projects took the form of professional scientific posters, and we presented our work to members of the local scientific community at our exhibition. I chose to research the management of Russian Olives, a prominent invasive species in the four corners region. Our main assignment was to write a management plan for our chosen issue. To read mine, click here.
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Invasive Species Management Project Reflection
For this project, we had four different options to study. Bear human conflict, mega fires, the pacific garbage patch, and colony collapse disorder were all interesting issues that promised many engaging challenges, but the one that was closest to home was the management of invasive species. I have spent a lot of time rafting, and with parents who are both scientists, I had a large amount of exposure to the issues posed by invasive species along the rivers I was on. One such species was Russian Olive, or E. angustifolia. I chose to focus on this specific species for this project because there hasn’t been a very successful control method found for it yet. Our assignment was to create three management strategies for our issue that were possible real world solutions. To do this, I first had to do a huge amount of research to find the current plans and strategies already being employed. Then, with some help from my parents, I created my three management strategies. Then I made a timeline and budget based off of my management strategies. Then the final step of the project was to put all of the different elements of my project on to a poster board and present it to professionals from the community.
Of my three management strategies, I think that my strongest one was my third one. My other two plans had several creative and interesting aspects, but I think that the third one was the most thought out. My third plan was to use manual removal followed by grazing. This plan consisted of three steps. The first was to use a bulldozer to clear out as much Russian Olive as possible. This method is better than removal using a hydromulcher or chainsaws because it removes more of the root mass. However, because it is impossible to remove the entire root mass, my plan had to include a section to limit re-sprouting from buried root mass. I considered use of pesticides on the stumps and root masses, but that can contaminate the soil and is very expensive. Instead, my plan called for the use of livestock to control sprouting. By allowing ranchers to let their livestock graze on the floodplain after removal, the sprouts would be eaten. The final stage of this plan was to plant and maintain cottonwood saplings on the floodplain. The largest obstacle with this plan was how much it would cost for all the manual removal. To offset this cost, dead biomass from the removed Russian Olives would be burned in flexible fuel power plants to make electricity. The profit from this would go back to the project so that the government could afford to continue the removal. Technically speaking, if they were able to make power for the entire state of Colorado for one hour, they could make upwards of five million dollars.
During this project, I learned many things, both about how to create scientific posters and about ecology itself. I had a fair amount of exposure to scientific writing because of our Durango Nature Studies project, but I learned a little more about objective writing through the process of making management strategies. It is a different type of writing when you are outlining a plan than it is when you are simply describing an issue, and I learned a lot from the process. I also learned a fair amount about reading scholarly articles and finding the information I needed out of them. Through the process of reading all of these different scholarly articles, I managed to extract the important information out of the article without reading the entire thing, which could sometimes be almost 30 pages long. In the ecological side of things, I learned a lot about why issues such as invasive species management are so hard and delicate to solve. If you just think about an issue before looking into all the background behind it, it is easy to view it as a simple or easy to solve issue. In fact, so many other elements such as the sustainability and cost of a solution make it very challenging to find a solution that is realistic. In the light of this, I understood why issues like these rarely get solved. Through learning these things, my perspective on many of these issues changed as well. For example, I had never really thought about the fact that technically speaking, invasive species are simply an example of survival of the fittest. The only thing that distinguishes invasives from naturally spreading and dominating species is that they spread mainly through human transport and don’t have any of their natural pests, giving them a major advantage over native species. Without this project, I don’t think that I would’ve considered this as deeply as I did.
Of my three management strategies, I think that my strongest one was my third one. My other two plans had several creative and interesting aspects, but I think that the third one was the most thought out. My third plan was to use manual removal followed by grazing. This plan consisted of three steps. The first was to use a bulldozer to clear out as much Russian Olive as possible. This method is better than removal using a hydromulcher or chainsaws because it removes more of the root mass. However, because it is impossible to remove the entire root mass, my plan had to include a section to limit re-sprouting from buried root mass. I considered use of pesticides on the stumps and root masses, but that can contaminate the soil and is very expensive. Instead, my plan called for the use of livestock to control sprouting. By allowing ranchers to let their livestock graze on the floodplain after removal, the sprouts would be eaten. The final stage of this plan was to plant and maintain cottonwood saplings on the floodplain. The largest obstacle with this plan was how much it would cost for all the manual removal. To offset this cost, dead biomass from the removed Russian Olives would be burned in flexible fuel power plants to make electricity. The profit from this would go back to the project so that the government could afford to continue the removal. Technically speaking, if they were able to make power for the entire state of Colorado for one hour, they could make upwards of five million dollars.
During this project, I learned many things, both about how to create scientific posters and about ecology itself. I had a fair amount of exposure to scientific writing because of our Durango Nature Studies project, but I learned a little more about objective writing through the process of making management strategies. It is a different type of writing when you are outlining a plan than it is when you are simply describing an issue, and I learned a lot from the process. I also learned a fair amount about reading scholarly articles and finding the information I needed out of them. Through the process of reading all of these different scholarly articles, I managed to extract the important information out of the article without reading the entire thing, which could sometimes be almost 30 pages long. In the ecological side of things, I learned a lot about why issues such as invasive species management are so hard and delicate to solve. If you just think about an issue before looking into all the background behind it, it is easy to view it as a simple or easy to solve issue. In fact, so many other elements such as the sustainability and cost of a solution make it very challenging to find a solution that is realistic. In the light of this, I understood why issues like these rarely get solved. Through learning these things, my perspective on many of these issues changed as well. For example, I had never really thought about the fact that technically speaking, invasive species are simply an example of survival of the fittest. The only thing that distinguishes invasives from naturally spreading and dominating species is that they spread mainly through human transport and don’t have any of their natural pests, giving them a major advantage over native species. Without this project, I don’t think that I would’ve considered this as deeply as I did.