ABI 150 Section B - Bring Your Child to Work Day
Odonates 8:2
“But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs.”
9:52 AM - Marshall pulled the savvy move of recruiting some top-flight talent for our last field day. This acquisition is a sure-fire way to boost morale and increase efficiency. He was getting to know the crew before I arrived, though he became a man of few words during our first meeting. The crew started loading up the van, while Kendall, Alejandra, Eric, and I get caffeinated! Jay foresees a pin of shame.
10:00 AM - Everyone arrived at Mann, and hey, everyone was on time! Nothing but smiles, especially the presence of Mini-Marshall. To keep identity anonymous, I shall dub him, marshmallow! Jay had already given us the schedule beforehand, so we already knew what we had to do so she kept her opening statement succinct yet moving.
10:02 AM - We leave to the bypass. I make a sharp turn and the PTSD kicks in. WHO HAS THE WATER JUG??? Luckily, our team adapted and overcame and made sure our water jug was tightly secured and safe from my nefarious (but totally safe, and legal) driving. As a person who hates silence in the car it really warmed my heart to hear so many conversations between people who didn't even know each other just two months ago! Starting to feel more and more like the family trip to Disneyland.
10:28 AM - We arrive at the bypass and as we did our stretches and settling, we saw such a pretty bull! A good omen if you will. Jay began distributing the markers, as the long-formed bonds between crewmates were shattered. There were accusations against those that took their long-time partners, and though I can confirm these crews were randomly assigned. I absolutely would've bribed the captain into assigning me with who I ended up working with. Marshmallow became marsh-not-so-mallow, as the excitement of the outdoors was filling him with determination, he broke out of his shell instantly! Mia left her hi-chews out and we (yes all of us) absolutely indulged, so thank you again Mia!
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| Bull on Parade Taken By Arianna |
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| Crewmates & Plots Created by Jay |
10:35 AM - We began our first two intervals of collection. Though it may be hot, I was with the chillest dude in ABI history - Eric - so it really wasn't an issue. Our first 2 intervals weren't too shabby. A capture here, a capture there. We discussed trends in our data, but the most interesting thing is, why are there so many male dancers in this one specific plot of "Blue Green"?
11:24 AM - As we were walking back, we saw Crystal! The leader of the plant task force. She used seek and her knowledge to ID the most common plants in each plot. This is through her eyeball estimation as she walked along the 50m transect. For those who want habitat analysis, this info will be super useful for you! so thank you Crystal for doing this record keeping.
11:30 AM - We met back up and debriefed amongst ourselves. Again, reminiscing of the old times with our previous crewmates, and our newfound respects to our current ones. Marshmallow was already well adjusted and greatly increased the production of any site he walked on. As Jessica always does, she made sure we all got some gummies along with some lore about her mother, which just gets crazier and crazier. We drank some water, ate, relaxed, and some people wandered and we cannot forget to have at least one comment about my decrepit age.
12:10 PM - Another 2 intervals at BB. Let's just leave it at that.
1:05 PM - The plunders of me and Eric were sparse. Though we've heard tales from the crewmates over yonder in the Rouge Wetlands about the vast treasures. 10's, even a few with 20's. This is something we had to see for ourselves, Captain Jay had us set to sail to these lands on for our next expedition. Me and Eric could already picture the fame and the shiny blew jewels we were destined to have.
1:06 PM - Everyone was drinking their water, eating some more food. Jay collected the markers and rearranged them for the next groups. She asked the group to see if we want to have a shorter break and finish a little earlier, which we all appeared to want. Jennifer got caffeinated. Marshmallow had himself an early Halloween with the treats provided by Mia and Jessica. Alejandra was wandering in the dry land. All is good!
1:40 PM - We set off for our final intervals. The rumors were very true! Damselflies out the wazoo whatever that means (please don't look it up). There was plenty of activity, with the heavy abundance of forkies. This will need to be confirmed, but in red section there are a lot of the heteromorph females. Kendall and I had previously hypothesized maybe the male density leads to morph changes in females to be favored to avoi WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST TO TELL YOU FROG ALERT! FROG ALERT! FROG ALERT! FROG ALERT! FROG ALERT! FROG ALERT! FROG ALERT! FROG ALERT!
2:12 PM - IT IS MY HONOR TO DOCUMENT THAT ON MAY 22, 2026, AT APPROXIMATELY 2:12PM, THAT MIA FOUND AND *CAUGHT* A FROG. Under the orders of Captain Jay, the expertise in frog spotting from Alan, the luck of marshmallow, and the sheer will from Mia to catch a frog, it finally happened! Absolute cinema, a thrilling end to this plot and maybe the end of the one-sided beef between her and Eric. She was able to secure multiple in her container. To speak on how important this was, we found out without looking at discord. We were in the permanent wetland, while Mia caught them in the blue section and within minutes the word traveled to us on sum paul revere ts ts.
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| From MIA to Mia's Taken by Jay |
2:26 PM - We finished our intervals and went back to the vans. You know we all had to see the frogs for ourselves. They were absolutely adorable! It was definitely worth the wait. We all wandered around a little bit as we waited for everyone to get back and pack up. Jay called us all together for a small debrief and I became the thing I swore to destroy by assigning homework :(
2:46 PM - Everyone got into the vans; the frog team went on back to the water with Marshmallow to put the frogs back to their happy place and say goodbye! We left the yolo bypass
3:17 PM - We arrived back to campus, put everything back (hopefully) and boom, another successful Friday for the distress team!
Good job to our MC and captain Jay! She gave us several reminders to eat, drink water, and wear sunscreen. The randomized teams were a great opportunity to get to know some peers we previously haven't talked much to. Definitely appreciate all the work she put into the preparation for this day.
Good job to our whole team! Yall are such a delight to be around. You guys put in a lot of work and consistently contribute to our overarching goal, even for the ones that will never ever touch a bug ever again in their life. Stay curious, stay hydrated, enjoy your weekends, and let's finish this quarter and project strong :)
Excellent job to our lab assistant! Thank you Marshall for bringing your son, he was helpful and very kind!
Also thank you ImageJ group led by Crystal: Kayla, Alan, Arianna, and Alejandra. I lurked in that chat, and it looks pretty complicated. Since you will be devoting Sunday to working through it, you guys don't have to do my assignment!
Things to do before Tuesday 5/26:
1. Input your collection data in the spreadsheet by Sunday
2. Prepare a chart (bar graph, scatter, histogram, etc.) using our data. This doesn't have to be a complicated chart, feel free to reach out for any questions or help! - Not required for ImageJ group, I still encourage it though!
3. Think about potential predictors you'll be looking for
Analysis Note: Population dynamics will be our response variable. Whether that's dispersal, survivorship, species density, or sex is a better discussion for later. Right now, it seems like there is a pretty even divide between these two general questions
- How do the habitat features between perm and semi-perm shape population dynamics
- How does the weather influence population dynamics between perm and semi-perm wetlands
If the split is even enough, I will divide you guys and join the smaller team for our discussion on Tuesday. Having a chart will be very helpful for this discussion.
If there is any other analysis that has nothing to do with these two questions, I will also place you in the smaller group. Message me with any concerns and we can discuss how to make Tuesday the best use of your time.
Tuesday Tentative Schedule:
10:00 AM: Greetings
10:05 AM: Marshall will give an R tutorial on how to merge two datasets
10:35 AM: Take a breather, this tutorial will probably be migraine inducing and further reinforce your reservations against R
10:40 AM: Go around the room, everyone gives me one predictor variable you would like to look at
10:50 AM: Split of into the groups and share charts with each other, discuss with group how you intend on analyzing your predictor variable (20 minutes)
11:15 AM: Each group shares, tell me
- Your favorite chart that your group members made
- Interesting trends that need further investigation
- Your dream chart
- Vent about your R frustrations!
11:35 AM: Arianna Time!
If it's allowed, I will ask that the codes for the best charts be shared in the "R-Studio Chat" along with credit to the one that made it!
Numbers!
GOOD JOB YALL, looking like we're in for our biggest capture day!!! Here's our top 5
1. 5/15 - 221!!!!
2. 5/1 - 150
3. 5/22 - 117 AND COUNTING!!!!!
4. 5/8 - 104
5. 5/6 - 58
My curiosity has me wanting to see who has the most captures, here is the top 5 group codes. I will get the bottom of the real numbers by Tuesday. Place your bets for #1, the betting line for Jay is -1500
1. AJ - 146 (Arianna? Aja? Alan? Alejandra? and Jay? Jennifer? Jessica?)
2. KM - 61 (Yall already know 😎)
3. AK - 52 (The A brigade and Kendall? Kaya? Kayla?
4. AA - 41 (Yeah this will be fun to figure out)
5. RK - 39 (Rosie and Kaya)
Top 3 hours of total collection (across all days)
1. 1:00PM - 1:59PM - 210
2. 2:00PM - 2:59PM - 178
3. 11:00AM - 11:59AM - 138
4. 12:00PM - 12:59PM - 68
5. 4:00PM - 4:59PM - 47
Pictures!!!
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| Silly Geese Taken by Kaya |
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| The Dude Sitting Next you in a Plane Taken by Kayla |
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| The One Taken by Mia |
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| Protect Him at All Costs Or lose 2 points Taken by Kayla |
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| Well Since We're Already Dead... Taken by Rosie |
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