Coral Reef Conservation Project
Description/What we are doing: The Coral Reef Conservation Project will assess how a number of common local stressors (e.g., pollution, sedimentation) negatively impact the health of coral. Our measures of health will include early warnings of decline, such as changes in pigmentation and energy storage, rather than late-stage indicators like disease and death. The data we collect will not only illuminate those local stressors that cause the greatest detriment to coral health, but will also help generate “preventative medicine” by highlighting how these animals are impacted by various stressors early on, before conditions become dire. This scientific experiment will provide important information to reef managers and policy makers who make near-constant decisions regarding reef protection, allowing them to better protect these imperiled ecosystems.
Who we've been doing it with: Students have been working with a PHD Candidate Aron Hartmannn, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, Birch Aquarium at Scripps and the Ocean Institute.
Why we're doing it: The data we collect will not only illuminate those local stressors that cause the greatest detriment to coral health, but will also help generate “preventative medicine” by highlighting how these animals are impacted by various stressors early on, before conditions become dire. This scientific experiment will provide important information to reef managers and policy makers
who make near-constant decisions regarding reef protection, allowing them to better protect these imperiled ecosystems.
Who we've been doing it with: Students have been working with a PHD Candidate Aron Hartmannn, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, Birch Aquarium at Scripps and the Ocean Institute.
Why we're doing it: The data we collect will not only illuminate those local stressors that cause the greatest detriment to coral health, but will also help generate “preventative medicine” by highlighting how these animals are impacted by various stressors early on, before conditions become dire. This scientific experiment will provide important information to reef managers and policy makers
who make near-constant decisions regarding reef protection, allowing them to better protect these imperiled ecosystems.
Roles during exhibition
My role during exhibition prep was to laminate and place infocards on each persons tank which housed the coral. During exhibition night I was a Attendance Counter, Taught a game about nitrates and coral growth, was a Docent and explained my tank to verious people during the night. One accomplishment that I made over the course of exhibition prep and exhibition night was grasping a better understanding of basically how everything fit together in the end. Everything done during the project intertwined and related one way or another wether it be influencing coral or algae growth.
Classes Project Website
Reflection
During the Coral Reef Conservation Project I produced a Research Paper and expanded my knowledge about coral reef habitats, organisms that live inside of them, stressors that are destroying reefs and ways to prevent this from happening. Throughout this project there were many challenges such as finding proper information that was accurate, communicating between the class leaders for each part of the project and equally contributing to each group members role. Though there were quite a few challenges, I am most proud that I completed the research paper with all the requirements that needed to be in it while keeping group members on track while they contributed. I'd say that I remember exhibition best from this entire project because it summed up all of our work that students have been researching for months and breifly taught community members about the information in one night. The one big lesson that I learned from this project is to not rely on what people say they will do at all times. There were instances where group members would say that they would edit parts of the essay and next day, nothing would be changed. This happened quite a few times which set us back with due dates. Transferable skills that I developed through doing this project were meeting deadlines, working with a large group of people, long periods of research and communication. I feel that these skills will be used in my senior year, college and in the workplace.
My group's products
quikscience_proposal_nitrate_high.pdf | |
File Size: | 948 kb |
File Type: |
service_plan.pdf | |
File Size: | 51 kb |
File Type: |
lesson.pdf | |
File Size: | 63 kb |
File Type: |
reef_biodiversity_presentation.pdf | |
File Size: | 534 kb |
File Type: |
quickscience_poster_jpg.jpg | |
File Size: | 2786 kb |
File Type: | jpg |