ABI 150 Section B - Day 5 April Madness: The Search for a Final Proposal

 Section B Session 5 was run by Cristal as the MC on Tuesday April 14th 2026.

     1)  To begin the class, Cristal asked everyone to share their individual proposals.

     - Aja, Kayla, Alan, Caelan, and Kendall all wrote proposals with water striders as their target species.

    - Arianna, Kaya, and Alejandra's proposals each focused on tadpoles. Alejandra’s proposal also included crayfish as a target species.

    - The remaining seven students in class chose proposals centered around other organisms:

        - Five of these students wrote about invertebrates. Jennifer wrote about wolf spiders. Jessica wrote about stinging nettle. Andreana and Mario both wrote about damsel flies. Mia wrote about pill bugs.

        - One student, Rosie, wrote about another vertebrate species: least sandpipers.

        - Finally, Eric's proposal focused on both a vertebrate, bullfrogs, and an invertebrate species, crayfish. Sharing individual proposals took place from 10 to 10:30 AM. 

2) Next, Cristal sorted everyone into four groups of four based on proposal similarity. Within each group, members discussed their individual proposals and collectively decided on one proposal to present to the class. Members had the ability to choose one of the four proposals put forth by their group members or create a new proposal inspired by or composed of the members’ individual proposals. This took place from 10:30 to 11 AM. 


    - Group one, who all wrote about water strider ecology, is comprised of Aja, Kendall, Luna, and Caelan.

    - Group two, proposals about miscellaneous invertebrates, is composed of Maia, Jennifer, Kayla, and Cristal.

    - Group three, miscellaneous ecology proposals, includes Jay, Mario, Jessica, and Andreana.

    - Group four, people who wrote about frogs, is made up of Alajandra, Arianna, Kaya, and Eric.


3) Then, each group chose a name, and Cristal asked each group to share the one proposal that they chose to pursue.

    - Group one, dubbed We are the Water Striders, decided to design an experiment to test the response of water strider reproduction to changes in the environment by manipulating factors such as food abundance as well as water temperature and quality.

    - Group two, named Pill bug Personality Test, selected pill bugs as their target species and plan to observe their habitat preferences.

    - Group three, crowned Damselflies in Distress, chose to study the habitat and territory use of damselflies.

    - Group four, Froggetaboutit, decided to observe the effect of the presence of crayfish on tadpole populations. This took place from 11 to 11:10 AM. 


4) Afterwards, Cristal instructed everyone to find articles that pertained to their group proposal. This took place from 11:10 to 11:20 AM. 


5) Finally, Kaya spoke in preparation for Session 6 as the next MC on Friday April 17th. She took a class poll on whether to visit a new field site or return to the Yolo Bypass field site the class visited as the second field site during Session 4. Nine people voted to return to Yolo Bypass while the remaining seven expressed their desire to explore a new potential field site.

    - Taking everyone’s desires and the four projects into consideration, Kaya decided to split the class into two groups for Session 6: one will visit the Yolo Bypass and the other will visit Quail Ridge. Mario generously offered to drive himself and his group, the Damselflies in Distress, to Quali Ridge. This allows for everyone to attend the field site that they wish to because the class will now have enough seats in each van. This took place from 11:20 to 11:30 AM.

   6) As a bonus, scavenger hunt totals from Session 4 were compared, and Jennifer’s team won with an impressive total of 47 points! Each member of the winning team received a personal sunscreen as prize, generously donated by Mia, the MC for Session 4. Cristal’s team won second place. 

    With that, Section B Session 5 concluded a few minutes early at 11:35 AM.



To the victors went the spoils!

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