Weekend December 4-5

This past weekend was very productive. Starting with Wednesday, I helped assist with the high school program “Be Wet”. The program uses college students within the STEM majors as mentors for high school student. I went to Channel Island to tell them about my capstone project. The opportunity allowed me to build experience presenting my research in a non-stressful environment. The presenting continued into Linda O’Hirok’s ESRM 100 Class where I recruited helpers with my data collection the coming weekend. The ESRM student received “service learning” hours while I gained leadership and presentation skills. Friday’s group of helps assisted me with profile surveying, sand collection, and GPS tracks. We were extremely productive and collected data at all five of my transects. Saturday was also highly productive. Previous capstone students studying the nourishment at Port Hueneme, have looked at biological factors and biological diversity on the beach. Saturday’s group assisted in “sandy beach protocol” where primarily clam guns and mesh screens were used to assess the health of beaches. Measurements of infauna, such as sand crabs, was collected. My personal observations saw few sand crabs present for the majority of the beach. The data collected will be eventually compared against last year’s data. Last week was very productive and allowed me to learn many new experiences.