Jun 4, 2011

Savannah State REU: Week Three

Happy June; summer is finally here! How do you plan to spend your sun-kissed summer days? I had an amazing third week of the Savannah State University REU program; we boarder hopped into South Carolina for a field trip, cloned a tomato plant, and explored fun and science-y parts of Savannah, Georgia

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On Saturday evening some of the REU kids and I headed into downtown Savannah, to the Riverfront. We nabbed some tasty frozen yogurt, walked around the shops, and got to check out a little weekend craft fair. There was a DJ, so we got to have a mini dance party in the middle of the waterfront park, and one of the girls in the program, Taryn, got her first funnel cake! She let us all have a bite, and it was super tasty. Afterwards, we watched a movie together, and then called it a night.

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Memorial Day afternoon two of the other REU girls—Taryn and India—and I headed to Tybee beach in Savannah. It was a ton of fun; it was just crowded enough, and the water was super warm. We tanned a little, swam a lot, and got to watch a live band perform a bunch of rockin’ oldies on the beach pier.

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Tuesday, the REU kids loaded into the Savannah State Marine Sciences van and headed to Georgia Insititue of Technology, Savannah, and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. At Skidaway, we visited the offices of Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary to learn a little about their work studying and protecting Gray’s Reef. We also visited Georgia Southern University’s AppliedCoastal Research Laboratory, where we learned about their work mapping an area of marshland on the Skidaway campus. They are working with GIS and advanced mapping techniques to create a comprehensive map of the topography of a marshland, and it was really neat to see the marsh and the computer modeling!

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Afterwards, we headed to the University of Georgia’s Marine Education Center and Aquarium, where we got to see the fish and get a behind-the-scenes tour of the aquarium! It was really neat to see the fish tank system from the back, and learn how they take care of the animals.

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After lunch at Applebees (I just ate my packed lunch), we headed to Georgia Tech Savannah, where we got to see a few of the projects they have in the works. We got to watch a demonstration of a robot that’s been designed to operate remotely using GPS coordinates and/or a Nintendo controller, which was really neat!

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We also got to see a project that was done with a small robot that orients itself in the direction of your body using motion detection, and a wheelchair that was programmed to follow the color pink while avoiding any items in its path. Later, we got to see some of the research facilities, too, which was awesome!

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On Wednesday, the REU group headed to the laboratory of Dr. Chandra Franklin, a biology professor at Savannah State University. There, we got to examine DNA using gel electrophoresis, help grow some cloned tomato plants, transfer genes using biolastic bombardment (aka a “gene gun”), and amplify DNA using polymerase chain reaction technology. How’s that for geeky? It was actually really fun, and Dr. Franklin and his lab technicians were all super nice and easy to work with. I can’t wait to get my tomato plant back; if we did the process correctly, I should have my very own baby tomato!

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Thursday, REU hit the road to visit a few awesome science facilities in Charleston, South Carolina. We visited a big complex with laboratories for a bunch of different science groups. First, we got to see some of the College of Charleston’s facilities on the site, including a huge “library” of preserved specimens, and some fun live specimens, including stone crabs, diamondback turtles, puffer fish, and blue crabs!

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For lunch, we met up with an REU group working at the Hollings Marine Lab, also located at the site. We bonded over pizza and Klondike bars, and then went split up so we could tour the Hollings’ facilities, which were absolutely amazing. Although the building is ten years old, it looks brand new, and the labs are absolutely stuffed with amazing equipment! There were rooms in which you can “totally” control your environment (i.e. temperate, etc.), a giant magnet, and an awesome frozen specimen library. We got to hear a few talks from different scientists about their work with sea turtles, the National Instituteof Standards and Technology (NIST), and human health and “sentinel species”, such as dolphins.

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On Friday we got our mentor assignments for our next four weeks of research. I’m working with Dr. Ebanks on a project involving oil dispersants and grass shrimp, and I’m super, super excited! I really like my mentor, and the research seems really interesting. Dr. Ebanks and I visited Dr. Richard Lee at the Skidaway Institute to talk about the project and get some crude oil and dispersant samples to work with. We also went to subway for lunch, which was fun! Friday night, after dinner, the REU group headed back to River Street to walk around and get ice cream! We got to explore the area again and visit Leopold’s Ice Cream, where I got honey almond and cream on a sugar cone. I swear, it was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had, and the ice cream parlor was so cute and old fashioned! 

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Saturday I headed to Tybee beach with two of the other REU students, Laura and Taryn. We had a blast enjoying the sun and the surf, and building a cute turtle out of sand (don't you love my crazy beach hair?)!We even got to watch two guys who swam out too far get picked up by lifeguards on jet skis (they were fine).

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We spent the whole afternoon on the beach, and then headed back for dinner, showers, and movies. Whew! It was a busy week, but a ton of fun!