My Senior Capstone Project Journey (Culminating Blog)

    Through out this journey, it was very intimidating at first. It seemed as though it was an obstacle course that was impossible to defeat. I am a determined, responsible, and efficient student as it is already, so you can imagine how other students were feeling about the task that was handed to us. As we commenced the project the very first step was to choose a topic/career, I already had one in mind but I was hesitant in the beginning. As I thought about it long and hard, I made up my mind. With out a doubt Marine Biology was going to be my topic. My next step was deciding on a essay topic, that in some way correlated to Marine Biology. My first instinct was to write an expository essay on a Marine Mammal of my choice, but then Mr. Migdail persuaded me other wise. I took a more challenging and risky route, I chose to write about the continuous whaling disputes between the United States and Japan. Yes, there is a lot of information out there that I can use, but not good enough sources that meet my specific standards of a good source. With the help of Ms. Mitchell I successfully completed my essay, with amazing sources and a well thought out thesis statement. Creativity and critical thinking skills were a complete must in being successful during this part of the project. Where collaboration and communication skills came in handy was when I needed help finding a mentor, and actually meeting her for the first time. If you do not have decent communication skills, then most of the time you will not be successful in some tasks. As a student you want to be as professional as you can to give off a good impression to your mentor, and show them that you are dedicated and very serious about the project. If not, how can they take this project and yourself seriously? In order to collaborate with someone else you have to be considerate of their ideas. Working with my mentor was a very smooth process, what made it easy was that we were both considerate of each other. Although she had things in mind for us to do, if I seemed uninterested she would talk about something else that we could do. Yet, if something wasn't simply going to work out then I reassured her that it was fine and we'd do what she originally planned to take less stress off of her. In order to have been successful, you must have had to use these four skills wisely to make it past all those road bumps.
     I took this Capstone Project to it's fullest advantage. Either I was going to do a half a** job, or do the best I could and get some type of reward out of it. Generally speaking, I definitely enhanced my time management skills, communication skills, and choosing my priorities. I had a lot of deadlines, and that helped me want to get my work done earlier than asked to in order to keep up with other school work as well. I also had to break out of my shell and talk to a stranger (my mentor) and just go for it, I had be a driven and responsible student who wants to succeed in life and start some where. More education wise, I learned a lot about the college related side and it's after math. Taylor gave me some super helpful tips that I probably would have never received, only if I would have talked to a current biology major at SFSU because they were biology major tips. But, in a over view I learned that you have to be very driven in this career in order to be successful on a daily basis because there is a lot of information to obtain in college that is necessary to know. Secondly, you could do what ever you'd like with in this field. There is so much you can do, so many things you can try just in order to get your feet wet and see what you like and dislike. So right after college if you are still not sure in what you'd like to do, it's okay! There's plenty of options, so that is definitely reassuring. What is definitely reassuring is that this project gave me the closure that I needed, Marine Biology is the career for me.
    Thankfully, I didn't face as many problems as my peers did. I had minor issues, but nothing that I couldn't over come or fix myself. One of the major problems was transportation, the FMSA office and our monthly surveys being so far away, and my parents not being able to drive me anywhere was frustrating. Thank God with the help of Ms. Milani, Taylor, and public transportation, everything worked out for the better. Not only did I have to become responsible and find a way to get there on my own,  it made me feel proud that I figured things out all on my own when I had to step up to the plate. Another minor issue was at the beginning of this project, trying to get in contact with Taylor. The FMSA being a government run association, there was no way in getting in contact with her by her work email, since the government at the time was shut down. I had no control over the situation what so ever, all I could do was wait patiently and hope that she would respond immediately when she had the chance. In the end it paid off, and she did what I had hoped for. Although there were some ups and downs, without the downs I wouldn't have gotten much from it because they made me work harder and develop problem solving skills for my every day life. Sincerely, this project gave me the boost and confidence I needed in order to start college off with an optimistic outlook on life and my future career. Thank you SSFHS and teachers.
     

Taylor leaving with a bang! - April 27, 2014

   Sadly this is myself and Taylor's last day together. We are up bright and early and ready to go at 7:30 A.M down to Watsonville. She rented a Zip car and we are head down south for about 2 hours until we are at our destination. 2 hours later... we arrived! Elkhorn Slough is a estuarine reserve so we had to go to their visitor center and pay $4.00 to be able to go on a hike and just wander were we wanted to. We were going to go on a tour at 10 A.M but we were super early so we decided to wander off and go to Moss Landing Harbor about 10 minutes away from Elkhorn Slough. We arrived and we got to see 2 Sea Otters! It definitely made my day that much better, and we also saw a lot of California Sea Lions. After 10 or so minutes we decide to head back to make our tour on time. Casually as we're leaving, we get in the car and BOOM! Taylor backs up and hits a truck parked behind her. Instantly we both panic because it was a complete accident and never saw it coming, she immediately goes and finds the owner and exchanges information since it isn't Taylor's car and the Zip car company will be doing all that for her. Already the day is off to a some what bad start, after that we head back to Elkhorn Slough and are late to the tour. We decided to go off on our own hike when a ranger approached us and asked us if we wanted a tour, of course we accepted it. I have to say that the tour was so peaceful and everything was beautiful, with senior project in the process and going to college soon, it was nice to relax and escape from the world for a while. Unfortunately Taylor wasn't having such a good day so we decided after our hike to just head home. We just got on the free way and we're a good solid 20 minutes in when Taylor realizes that we're on the 101 South when we should be on the 101 North! That day couldn't get any worse, we had to exit and find our way back to the correct free way entrance. Despite all the issues we faced that day we still kept our heads held high and made the best of it. 2 hours later we are almost close to home, the closer we got to my house the more I thought about how this was the last time I will be seeing Taylor. It was a bitter sweet feeling saying goodbye to her. Sweet because I am done with one aspect of this project, but bitter because I learned a lot from her and had a blast while going on these adventures with her. She will truly always have a special place in my heart. I Cannot wait to finish high school and finish this project to get to college and start my life already, I'm almost there, I can taste it.

Time logged for this session: 5 Hours
Total time logged: 28 Hours

Office day! - April 25, 2014

   The last time Taylor and I were together she had given me 2 different options, go on another survey or go on a different event that is similar to a survey. Well none of those ended up happening, before I went on spring break we both had a chat about what was going to happen next. We decided that taking a break from being in the field would be nice, to finally take a look at how it is to work in a office and working with the data you collected, and we did just that. Side note, I will be attending San Francisco State University in the fall, therefore I have been going to the campus often due to meetings and turning in important documents they've been asking for. Since I cannot drive I have been using public transportation A LOT more now and feel more comfortable wandering around the city. That being said, the FMSA is located on Crissy field and I would have to take a similar route to get there as I would if I were going to SFSU. We scheduled to meet at 10 A.M, so it is Friday morning and I am up at 7:00 A.M preparing to leave my house by 8:00 A.M. Lets just say that public transportation sucks! in the aspect that it takes forever to get to your destination, I mean who wants to be on a bus for 15 minutes, then take Bart for another 10 minutes, and then take Muni for another 45 minutes, twice a day. Not me! In reality it is all worth it in the end but for the mean time you gotta' do what you gotta' do right? Back to my day, finally I've arrived and I am 15 or so minutes early. Taylor meets me outside her office and we head on up to get to work. She briefly shows me the data base where they enter all information they collect on surveys and what not. Then she grabs the form of our survey, and uses it as an example to show me how to double check that all the information that is input already is correct. I am left to do that for a whole basket full of survey forms, about 2 hours later we decide to take a break and go on a walk. Mind you that it is sprinkling but we don't mind, we are on our walk about 10 minutes in and all of a sudden it starts raining a lot harder. We make our way back to the office completely soaked from our clothes and shoes. That didn't bother us though, we got back to work. It was really interesting looking at different survey forms, some has no dead animals on that beach, but others seemed like the list never ended. Some beaches had a wide range of animals, others not so much. The day is coming closer to the end so we decide to stop and help me with my presentation. Taylor was more than happy to let me use pictures from their data base to use in my presentation. I was super excited because the pictures were so cool! It got me thinking and how I've made the right choice in choosing this career. After giving me a couple more details and advice for my presentation she walked me out to head back home. In the end I really liked working in the office, maybe not 24/7 but every so often would be nice. I am super excited for our next meet up, we're suppose to go see Sea Otters! They are so dang cute!!! We're going to go to Elkhorn Slough down in Watsonville and go on a hike and just have a "Fun day" to reward ourselves for working so hard. The only problem is that we might not be able to get to see Sea Otters, either they're there or not. Hopefully we get to see at least one! or maybe not...

Time logged for this session: 5 Hours
Total time logged: 23 Hours

Back to work! - February 17, 2014

   Taylor is back from Mexico, and we finally had the chance to go do the monthly survey in Bodega. As mentioned previously, the first survey we did in December was pretty conservative, due to the high tides and the dangerous outcomes that tagged along. This time coming we expected the tides to be almost the same as last time, once we arrived I noticed that the weather was perfect, sunny and a nice breeze. As soon as we hit the beach Taylor said the tides looked a lot better but not as much as we'd like them to be. Meaning, we could cover more of the beach than we did the previous time, not by much but it definitely makes a difference. As usual I was the one in charge of the clip board and writing down the different codes and number of invertebrates she would call out, this being my second time I felt pretty confident, I was much more aware of my surroundings and a lot more comfortable with the beach itself. Other than that everything was pretty much the same, expect this time we saw one Sea Lion! After the survey ended and since we finished early, we decided to go up to bodega head which is about 10 minutes away from the beach. Reasoning behind that is because we really wanted to see a Humpback Whales! Unfortunately after 30 minutes of walking around and trying to spot them, we saw nothing, the view was amazing though. Although this survey wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, I still felt good about getting the work done and being rewarded by having the opportunity to see a Whale for the first time, but maybe next time! Taylor had also mentioned to me that I had the choice of doing the March survey with her, or doing a different event that was similar to the beach survey we do in Bodega, just a lot more detailed and a shorter process from what I understood, I'll have more information later. It is a tough call for me because if the tides clear up by the next survey I'd love to go there one more time to see if this will be the best survey yet, or try something new and leave this journey with trying two different things. Hopefully Taylor can lead me in the right direction because right now I cannot decide!

Time logged for this session: 5 Hours
Total time logged: 18 Hours

Break? No way! - January 13, 2014-February 16, 2014

    Unfortunately the month of January, Taylor had to go on a trip to Mexico, meaning we couldn't do the monthly survey up in Bodega. Luckily, she still had some minor work for me to do that would last me from January until the February survey, with out rushing through it all. The material consisted of various different links to websites that could potentially help me in the long run, when going on a survey with her, especially since it's difficult to do the job while trying to explain the process to someone else through out the whole time. These surveys aren't brain surgery, but they sure do take a whole lot of memorizing different codes, multi tasking, and of course being able to identify different invertebrates. Since a lot of this information was really overwhelming on top of everything else going on at school I took it slow, I had a lot of time until the next survey so I decided to pace myself and actually spend time reviewing all of this information. In one of the PDFs I came across the list of codes that's corresponded with the different species you could possibly come across on a survey, I'm not going to lie, it did scare me a little bit. Page after page, all you could see was codes! So to make it easy on myself I decided to highlight the codes of the different animals we had seen in the previous survey, it made it a lot easier to study them and actually focus on the ones that mattered the most at this particular beach. Along with memorizing codes you have to know how to fill out the spread sheet, it's pretty straight forward, but one little mistake can mess up the entire thing. It was nice to see examples and actual steps on how to fill out the form correctly, keeping in mind that any little mistake you make could effect the data that will be input into the system. Over all, this time was for me to prepare myself for the next survey, to make sure I am fully aware of what is expected from me and to overall have a better explanation of what an actual survey is and how to properly lead one. Obviously I have a long way to go with all these requirements, but for now all I can do is try my best and put in the effort needed to show my mentor that this is what I want, and I am willing to do what it takes to succeed. My next survey is actually tomorrow! Hopefully the tides are a lot better this time and will be able to cover more of the beach, if not, it's going to be another short survey again...

Time logged for this session: 5 Hours
Total time logged: 13 Hours

First adventure - December 20, 2013

    It's 8:30 on a Friday morning in San Francisco, Taylor and I are in the car, on our way to Bodega bay. It's about a 2 hour drive, not that bad. Or at least that's what I thought... We're on the road about 45 minutes in, and we come to a point where the road is turn after turn non-stop, almost like race track but with many more harsh turns. Taylor asks me if I'm car sick, since she's had other people ask her to stop because they needed to puke. I confidently said, "No". This road seemed to be endless, the harsh turns wouldn't stop and neither did my minor headache and upset stomach. I began to feel uncomfortable, to the point where I had to ask her to pull over, I couldn't take it. The moment I stepped out the car I already felt better, the fresh air circulating in and through my lungs and a still vision made my car sickness almost vanish completely. After a few minutes of my body regaining its equilibrium, we headed back on the road. Roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes later we arrived! We got our clipboards and binoculars and headed towards the beach! It was a beautiful sunny day but we were off to a bad start, Taylor had noticed that the tides were higher than she expected, but that didn't stop us! She briefly explained to me the forms she had given me that I would fill out through out the survey. Basically she would call out different vertebrates and have me tally how many there is. At this beach we only saw birds, so she would call out different species of birds and how many she saw through out the whole beach. Unfortunately we didn't cover the entire beach due to the high tides and the dangerous possibilities that came with it if we were to continue, we could have seen sea lions! May be next time. After we tallied all the number of different species of birds we saw and the quantity, we roamed the same part of the beach but instead of looking for live vertebrates, we were looking for dead vertebrates. Thankfully we found none! Since we finished earlier than expected we decided to go to the Bodega marine laboratory and have a tour of their different laboratory buildings. Not only was it a tour of the buildings, but also a very Informative tour about different marine mammals, marine science history, ways to help the earth, etc. I would have to say that the best part of the tour would be when we went outside and looked at their tide pool tank. It's available and open to the public and with permission of the staff you could actually pick up a sea star! Of course I did, the water was insanely cold but it was well worth it. It was a bummer once the day was getting closer to the end, I had so much fun though. I also got better news at the end, Taylor said that if it's okay with me, I could do the monthly survey with her in Bodega! I was more than happy and honored to accept that offer. Hopefully next time the tides are in our favor and were allowed to cover the rest of the beach, it was a rough start but after a while I really got the hang of it. With crossed fingers and good vibes all will go well in our next survey, who knows, maybe well get to see a whale or sea lions! Or maybe it'll rain and we'll have to cancel! Or the tides will be ridiculously high! Oh no, what's going to happen?!?!

Time logged for this session: 7 Hours
Total time logged: 8 Hours 

Successful planning day - November 22, 2013

    This wasn't my first time meeting with my mentor (Taylor Nairn). We decided it would be best to meet at her office and have her give me a tour, so that's exactly what we did. My lovely teacher Ms. Milani was so kind enough to drive me there since it is quite some time away, and my parents couldn't take me that afternoon. After 45 minutes, moving through rush hour traffic, we arrived! I was speechless, the view was incredible. She has the perfect view from her office, underside of the Golden Gate bridge. Aside from the two office buildings, they also have a pier with a small shack where labs and research is held. The tour began outside and we worked our way up and into her office. You would think it's a regular office with papers and file cabinets everywhere, but there's so much more than that. In the main entrance there are fish tanks, marine mammal fossils, murals of  marine life, basically everything marine orientated! Some what like a mini museum. The remaining of the building are offices where the employees enter research into their database, edit and review research, or get some type of work done. Her office is located on the second floor, within her office there is a large closet filled with binders containing data of deceased animals from decades ago till now. She shares her office with two other people who practically do the same job she does, so it is quite large. She briefly showed me their database and all the data she has collected on beach surveys, along with data from past years. Then she asked me if I was willing to go up to Bodega bay to do a beach survey with her! I was super excited and didn't hesitate to say yes. Along with the survey she has planned for me to go every month for four to five hours a day starting January till April, having me help her input level A data into their database. Something she does on a regular bases. After that she walked me out and Ms. Milani and I were on our way home, content about what we discussed that day. I couldn't help but feel excited and inpatient about our next assignment since it was a month away, the beach survey in Bodega bay. So far this project has been stressful and successful, stressful because it took me a while to get a hold of Taylor and there being a possibility that she wouldn't be interested in being a mentor. The successful aspect of it is, that she did agree to be my mentor and that everything is slowly but surely falling into place perfectly. It just started and I cannot wait to see where it leads me to. Bodega ready or not, here I come!

Time logged for this session: 1 Hour
Total time logged: 1 Hour
* Late post due to not having accesses to a laptop/computer at home and relying on school computers.*