Cellular Respiration Animation Update

This past week the group finished the rough outline for what exactly will be said and will take place during the animation. On Thursday we met and began our voice recordings. All went very well, except for a little confusion on the ATP synthesis part of the narrative. We are planning to meet again monday and tuesday to give the project its last finishing touches.

Sturgeon Patrol

Last Wednesday night Andy and I embarked on our expedition as sturgeon guards. After leaving Stevens Point we drove out to Shiocton and went to the main base camp, also known as “fish camp.” This camp is a DNR owned farmhouse where all the volunteering folks are assigned areas and told what to do. When we arrived we were sent downstairs to eat a home cooked supper and pack our lunch for the night. While we were eating I was interviewed by a representative from Wisconsin Public Radio. I was then broadcasted this past Tuesday on the radio. While eating other volunteers were arriving back from the day shift and we talked about how many fish they seen and any other interesting events. After supper we then went upstairs and were assigned an area to go and perform sturgeon guard. We were also given a hat. We were place in a remote location along the Wolf River. The name of the place was “the shithouse.” This location was very secluded and there were dozens of sturgeon present along the rivers banks. Our duties were to watch for poachers or anybody harassing the fish. I few saw any we had to call the base or the local conservation warden on duty. While we were here we had the chance to view the sturgeon practicing their spawning rituals. The female would come near the shore and the males would then brush up next to her and perform external fertilization. The sturgeon spawned all night. We were there until 6:30 in the morning. We then went back to base and had breakfast there. After breakfast we said our thank you’s and good bye’s and headed back to school. I then made it into lab at 9 and did not sleep until later that night. It was hard on the body but I feel that it was an amazing experience. I plan on returning next year and I would recommend this to anyone interested in fishes. I am unable to get my pictures up but I have some up by early next week.

The YMCA continued

Last Friday at the Y, they had the earth day celebration. It turned out to be not must of a party though, as only four or five kids showed up. But we had it all set up anyway. We did paper making where we took shredded paper, mixed it with colored water, and made paper. One of the kids really loved punching the paper slosh and putting it through the press to squeeze all the water out. Another thing we did making "trees" out of empty toilet paper rolls and stenciled out hands. This was actually more fun than I thought it would be. The last little station we had was for kids who wanted to make their own tote bag so they wouldn't need to use disposable bags. They also had a few booths set up for the kids to look at with animal fur and skulls and pictures of animals in the rain forest.
When I started volunteering at the Y, I really did not expect too much of it. I thought I would go, put my time in, and get my points for it. But, over the next few weeks, I really enjoyed myself, and enjoyed working with kids. The experiences I had at the YMCA in Stevens Point prompted me to apply for a position at the Y back home in Green Bay. I got the job, and am going to be working with kids all summer, so having the volunteer work at the Y really paid off for me. I am glad we did the service-learning project.

Dorm sicknesses update

With the end of the year coming up fast we are getting very close to completeing out service project. The power point has been completed which means all we have to do is present the material to our dorm mates. The power point has a lot of valuable information in it including some of the more common sicknesses in the dorms, prevention of the sicknesses and appropriate treatment. I think it is information that will help a lot of people from getting sick in the future. As of right now we are planning on doing our presentations to our halls next week. Overall I enjoyed working on the project with the members of our group and i think we work well as a team. I have enjoyed teaching fellow students how to protect themselves from common sicknesses thus far and hope the presentation is a success. I know i have learned alot from this project and i hope others do as well.

Also the posters are still up in the bathroom and have been for some time. We are starting to reciveing some positive feedback which is cool.

Toilet Teacher

We have our pamphlets up in the bathrooms. Whenever people are using a toilet they are learning from our project. I myself and the other members of my group have gained alot of knowledge but what we find most gratifying is that others are learning from it as well. We were supposed to have the Hall G'vt vote on whether our pamphlets were allowed in the bathrooms but our hall director told us that we would be ok without there approval. On Monday we plan on giving a presentation to people of Steiner Hall. This is the only night our group can make it and what we worked out with the hall director. Since all of you arent able to come to it on Monday night, we will email our presentation and pamphlet to you all over the weekend. One thing we wish we would have done differently was to do sicknesses or infections that we would get in the spring rather than the winter but now people and ourselves will be ready next winter.

More Schmeekle Adventures

For the past couple of weeks, Lauren and I have gotten into a pretty standard routine of going to Schmeekle and picking up litter. I realize that it's nearly impossible to get it all, despite going to a different area each week, but it's still kind of shocking to see how much litter there really is. It's sad to think that people can be so careless, like they can't just throw their garbage in the trash. It's like they consider it more an inconvenience to themselves than the environment. But we've been doing our best to help compensate for this and make Schmeekle look as nice as possible. It's rewarding in a sense that we get the good feeling of knowing we've helped out, and that we get to spend quality time in nature. Especially after our trip to Schmeekle during the lab this week, I'm excited to go out there one more time and wrap things up.

Another Update

Now that we are finally done with the power point that takes a little bit of the stress of knowing we are in the final home stretch. Working on the powerpoint with the other guys was fun. We worked hard on making in understandable for everyone which sometimes proved challanging. We are looking forward to doing our presentations in our halls next week and hopefully we have a good turn out. Overall I have had lots of fun doing this project and working with the other guys. We worked very well as a team and we learned quite a bit as well. With only one week left I think everyone is releaved to be done. I hope everyone else has had as much fun with there projects as we have.

Homework Center Service Learning

Today was the last day I went to the Homework Center in Stevens Point. We arrived to the Homework center at the same time as usual. The kids were excited to see us as usual. I was surprised because most of the kids didn’t have any homework. We helped the ones that had homework and then I took a group outside to play kickball. Kickball was an eventful game due to the fact that when I tried to throw a kid out at second base, I hit my own team mate in the face with the rubber kickball. He had a red mark on his face after the fact, but he felt better after I gave him a free shot at me. Eventually, it started to rain out so we brought the kids inside. I played Candy Land with three youngsters which was pretty entertaining. I don’t mean to brag, but I won my fair share of Candy Land games back in the day, but these boys beat me three times! After Candy Land, we drew pictures and made paper fortune tellers. Sooner than we expected, eight o’clock rolled around, so we cleaned up and sent the children home. All in all, it was a fun day for me and the kids. Next week Thursday is the end of the year picnic; I hope to attend after our lab exam so I can help out again.

cellular Respiration

My group just meet yesterday and we were working on the voice parts for the cellular respiration animation. We meet yesterday in a room in the library where we could have it quiet so we could record the talking parts for each slide. We broke up the talking parts by slide so we could all have equal parts. We also meet last week for awhile to finish drawing up our slides and finishing up writing the parts we were going to say. Dr. Bala came for a little while yesterday and saw us recording our voices which took us a few times to get perfect. Friday, I am going to work with Liz and maybe Cody on fixing some of the animation all day in the art building. This should be interesting to see how it all comes together with the animation and us speaking in the back ground. My group has been working very well together and we could be happy with the results because this is a difficult task to do. I did not know how much work was actually there to make an animation but the results will be worth it. We will meet again next week to finish up the animation and fix anything within the voices or the timing of everything.

Losing a Resident

It was a hard week for my project. I went in to volunteer on Monday, and I found out one of my favorite residents had a bad weekend. She had stomach cancer, and her health was declining rapidly. She also had pretty bad dementia. She broke her arm a while back, and multiple times a day she would ask what happened to her arm because she couldn't remember. That got me thinking how scary Alzheimers can be. Just imagine how lost they feel, they can't even remember what happened to their own bodies. Anyways, this evening I got a call that this resident passed away and it hit me really hard. I was surprised by how much emotion it actually sparked from me, but I think in order to work and be around a place like this I need to learn to accept death. This resident was always so sweet, and she always called me a dear or told me I was such a doll. She never remembered my name, and I doubt she even knew who I was, but I feel like I lost a grandparent. She always had a smile on her face and she always loved to tell me stories about working on the farm when she was a little girl. I'm so happy that she could remember those good memories, not the bad ones like breaking her arm. That also really confuses me that they can remember and forget different things. I'm going to research that this weekend and hopefully next week for my entry have an answer to that.
In regards to the resident that passed away, I'm so happy I got to do this project because I got to spend more time with her. When it was warm out last week I actually took this resident for a walk on a trail behind the building. The whole time she kept saying how wonderful it was to be outside and that everything was so beautiful. She was able to appreciate the little things like nature, and it made me realize I need to slow down sometimes and do that too. I'm really going to miss this resident, but I'm glad I got to learn from her.