Tuesday, July 24, 2012

GOOD MORNING COSTA RICA! At last, the long-awaited day of graduation has arrived. Today was our final day of research with the ants in the rainforest. The morning went as all the previous mornings have, filled with data collection, analysis and cleaning. However, there was more of a sense of urgency because we had a tight schedule. Once the final data was collected, each group met with Adrian and used a website called Vassar Stats to determine the statistical significance of their results. Over the course of the morning, each group created a poster which displayed what they had been working on for the past week to use in their presentation later in the day. After lunch, Dr. Pinto had us practice our presentations in front of our peers to prepare for our final presentations for members of the community. The first set of presentations were pretty tough to watch, so making us practice turned out to be extremely helpful because we were able to receive constructive criticism and improve for the final presentations. Those tips resulted in fantastic deliveries of each group's information and everyone was very happy with how they turned out. The local elder who attended even shared that one of the group's idea of how to repel the ants was already being used by farmers in the area. They suggested that using the dirt of one ant colony could deter other ants from going somewhere. Another group's deterrent produced results that seem to suggest it may be a way to make ants abandon the tree it was applied to. It is simply a plastic ring wrapped around a tree with an added paste made of leaves that are disliked by the ants so they aren't able to climb up and harvest the leaves.

Ant deterring device

This device may not be practical on a large scale, but for small farms or households it could be just the thing to provide protection for a few important trees.

Unfortunately, Adrian had to leave after the presentations. No one wanted to see him go, all his help and advice has been invaluable. Jordan and I had the opportunity to talk with him about his experiences and learn more about the field of microbiology and in particular medical microbiology. This experience will be very helpful in determining everyone's plans for the future I'm sure.

Group photo with Dr. Pinto (Center blue shirt)

 We have all now officially graduated from the Costa Rica Science Research Experience. While we have no diploma, there is definitely a great sense of accomplishment throughout the group.We have all learned a lot over the past few days and had an amazing time along the way. 

Author: Austin