Wrapping up the Semester

The semester is coming to an end and I've finished the monsoon section of the module. I'm pretty happy with it I'd say. I also edited the stock section of the module.

From here, I'm headed to Townsville, Australia for a semester where I will be enriching my understanding of the world ocean. I'm very excited about it. I leave in February. I'm sorry to say that due to the distance, I won't be continuing with the project in the Spring, however I do hope to continue in the Fall.

I must contact Annette before I leave so we can get on the same page about the Capstone project. I wrote up a proposal for my capstone proposal writing class, however I'm not sure whether or not its what we'll be doing.

Its been a joy to see this project develop and I can't wait to see the progress when I get back.

Updates from Aubert

The semester has been less challenging than I thought it would be. So far I've been juggling classes and work pretty well. I missed a day of work because of Fall break which feels like lost time.

Two weeks ago I completed a blog entry for the other blog on Fish kills. It was quite interesting. Carrie had found a lot of good articles and websites for me to look over to find information. I think it turned out pretty well. I discussed the two different types of fish kill events and how they effect certain areas. We posed a few questions as well, hoping to get the scientists and other students involved.

There is a climate change conference being held here at the University of Maine on October 24th and 25th called CC21. Carrie wrote up and abstract which we edited. That was a tough one because it could only be 100 words, but we got it there with the help of some faculty and other students. Last week, Carrie and I started looking at formatting for the poster we're making. I rearranged the concept map as well into more of a triangular shape.

I spoke with Dr. Chai in passing the other day about my capstone and it looks like Annette deCharon might be the one to work with me on my capstone project in the Fall at the Darling Marine Center, which is really exciting. I've been thinking about what I might do for my project lately. I'm not sure how the time frame will work as far as testing the Arabian Sea project goes, but Carrie and I have discussed maybe doing my own testing in schools around the Darling Marine center. Another idea is that I know Carrie has mentioned that a version of the Gulf of Maine might be made and I was thinking that maybe I could take part in the continuation of that. But its all still up in the air. I need to sit down with Annette at some point and to discuss this further. I think Annette and Joaquim are still coming up at some point, but I cannot remember when. If that does not happen, I know I may be accompanying Carrie and Dr. Chai to the Darling Marine center at some point in November. Bottom line is, I going to email Annette today to get the ball rolling.

A new year with an adjusted direction

Well here we are again. Classes have started and the smell of academia is in the air. It's taken me awhile to begin contributing to this blog again but its been a busy year thus far. I don't think its so much that the professors are handing out a lot of assignments, its more like I'm scaling an endless mountain of readings.

I began meeting with Carrie a week or so ago about the project and it would seem that the project is not as far along as we had expected it would be by this time, but that is just part of the learning experience.

I left off in the Spring with a rough storyline for the project. Carrie has said to me that she feels like she has a better understanding of where we're going to head with the project now. She has shown me rough sketches of the storyboard and its all very exciting.
We also had a meeting with Dr. Chai last week to discuss where the project is going. We discussed how the module would potentially work; The main component is an interactive concept map. We want the general public to be interested by the project and encourage them to learn more. The best way to present important information, is in a way that people can understand and find it interesting without the complicated and often confusing jargon. From the beginning I know they've been thinking about how we can make it so the viewer can CHOOSE their own story. To be more clear, we want them to be able to direct their own learning experience. We want the viewer (in whatever age group, education level or field of interest that may be) to be able to say "I'm interested in this aspect of climate change but not this" or "I want to know about specifically about circulation or fish kills" and be able extract an understandable, non-threatening explanation of it. Then, if the person wants to know more, they can click and find out more about the mechanics behind it. It was also suggested that we add in a glossary with diagrams that can be as in depth as the reader wants it to be.

On a side note, we have a few conferences coming up which is pretty exciting. The University of Maine is hosting a climate change conference called CC21 that we're submitting a poster and an abstract for. Carrie has the backbone for the poster prepared from her symposium last year, we just have to tweak it a little bit. Carrie just finish writing an abstract and now my job is to look over it and help her crunch it from 130 words to 100 words without losing any of the meaning.

Aside from this project I've got my capstone to consider this semester. I'm taking my capstone proposal class. I need to be thinking about what I want to do for it. I've been thinking about trying to incorporate this project into my capstone if there is a way to do it. I was thinking that maybe when it comes time to test out the module, I can be using the testing period and the module in my capstone thesis. We'll see. I need to discuss it with my professor to see if it will count because I'm pretty sure the capstone is suppose to be library based, lab based or... field based? So I guess it depends on your interpretation of field based. It seems like a lot of people on campus are not entirely sure what the parameters are for the capstone because it can be so broad in the SMS field. Which can be a curse or a blessing depending on the way you look at it.

My next step is the start expanding on each individual idea from the concept map, adding dialogue, explanations,videos, terms, photos, diagrams, whatever I can think of. Also, to start formulating a running glossary.

At the same time, Carrie has started a new blog for us to work on as well as our personal blogs. Carrie described it as being "a global conversation" of whats going on. The web page is http://arabianseaclimate.blogspot.com/. Before I leave today I need to decide which concept I want to work on next so we can get started on it asap.

Hopefully this semester I'm going to get to meet Annette and Joaquim and possibly a few others of the scientists which is really cool.

Its going to be an exciting and eventful semester I think!

May 2nd, 2008 -- Last day of work until the next semester!

Yes, It is my last day of work for this semester because I'm going home for the summer. I'm honestly a bit sad because we are just beginning put the project together. Carrie will probably be the one to continue on with the outline and the Power point project throughout the summer so in that respect I'm pretty excited to see what she and the summer student worker come up with!

Today I worked on expanding the current outline and adding in the citations to make it easier for whoever continues on with what I'm doing now. I am trying to decide how I want to explain climate change as a whole because it is quite a broad topic. Dr. Dastoor talked about The Gaia hypothesis today in class which makes me think I want to incorporate that type of idea. The Gaia Hypothesis was developed by James Lovelock in the early 1970's which explains that the globe's living and nonliving parts are all just part of a complex interaction between systems that make up one functioning "organism". To put in layman's terms, everything part of the world is connected and interact. So when that means that the changes happening in the Arabian sea ultimately effect the entire globe.

I will be working with Carrie and Dr. Chai again in the fall. By then we should have the early stages of the project completed and the modules in our possession. We'll likely be working on testing out the outreach project on local students.

Early on in the week when Carrie and I were talking about the outline, Carrie mentioned that we want to be able to package up our project in a way that teachers will eventually be able to use our packet and computer program in their classrooms. So at the moment, I want to be thinking of the outline in a linear storyboard way, and also in a "chose you own adventure" type way.

April 30th, 2008

Today Carrie and I edited the schematic I was working on last week and I sent it to Dr. Chai to see what he thinks of it.
There are only a few days left for studying for finals so I'm going to be pretty busy this week! Hopefully within this coming week I'll be able to start on the Powerpoint.
Yesterday in Dr. Lindsay's seminar we made outlines of mock-outreach videos on Coral bleaching. I found it helpful because Dr. Lindsay helped us develop ideas on how to make it interesting.
I've decided that I need to think of something that kids can relate to or sympathize with like a "cuddly" species. It seems to me that sometimes people can be a little numb to things or events they can't relate to. I don't know if that sounds bitter or bleak or not but to me its an observation.

April 25, 2008

Carrie is finishing up a poster based on her work with the Arabian sea project so today I worked on making a schematic for her. The original was of the winter-time snow cover in the Himalayas and how it effects the strength of the monsoon winds but it did not fit the style of her poster so I made a replicate of it on Power Point. I have to say, I am quite pleased with it.
Hopefully I'll either be beginning to put my Power point together or I'll be continuing to add to my outline.

April 24th, 2008

I did not work yesterday like I had planned because I've been so busy with tests this week. I had a Chemistry exam on Tuesday and then a Physics exam on Wednesday so I spent most of the weekend and early week studying for those.
Today Carrie and I decided it was time to start developing a preliminary outline for what the end project is going to look like. Its quite simple and linear, however its a solid start. I'll probably use the outline for the Power point which I plan on starting next week. Eventually, the outline is going to be multi directional as we begin to think about constructing the website.
Carrie showed me Google Earth today which is SUCH a cool program! Its a 3D map of the earth constructed from millions of satellite images. You can zoom in and out and pull up things like the seasonal measurements of chlorophyll or temperature or current patterns. I think I'm going to try to incorporate some of its images into my presentation. I'm positive kids will find it more interesting than a 2D map.
I've also decided that I'm going to download the program so that I can play around with it for fun!