Sigh.... another unsuccessful grant application. Today I received the notice from New Zealand Marine Science Society (NZMSS) that my application for the NZMSS research grant was unsuccessful. Including this, I think I have submitted 8 grant applications - received 4 rejections, and 3 waiting for reply! The only one grant that I got was because I got to meet the person face-to-face, and able to sell the idea to the department!
Well, either I changed the way I write these applications, or this is just what the probabilities are in terms of grant applications. Onward and forward!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
Marine 202 field trip
FINALLY! The last field trip of the semester! I was demonstrating for Marine 202 field trip this weekend. Luckily the weather was great! It was a bit cold, but at least we were dry :) The students were doing cockles (Austrovenus stutchburyi) count along the muddy coast of Whangateau Harbour, to determine the density and size of the cockles distribution. There was a mass mortality of cockles in early 2009, and thus they were doing surveys to see if the population has recovered. After this trip, they would have to write a scientific report of the data they collected. Hanieh (another demonstrator) and I are in-charge of marking their papers this year.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
LED lights!
Finally got around to pull out the old metal halide on the fish tank, and install the new LED lights. The new lights have a lower wattage (120W), but higher lumen. Thus in the long run, LED lights helps saving money on power usage. It also generate less heat. Comparing to the old metal halides, the PAR value is much higher, and the colors are whiter as well! It really makes the colors on the rocks and corals stand out. Overall, Hannah and I are really happy with this LED light fixture. The corals (the hitchhikers from the rocks...haven't got any new ones) were very happy with the light, and some of the corals are starting to show some color! At the present moment, I am running the LED lights on 50% of its full power, just to acclimatize the corals to the new light.
 |
| Tank with new LED lights |
 |
| Tank with old metal halide lights |
 |
| Mushrooms showing some colors |
 |
| Zoos starting to color up a bit |
 |
| Happy Pavona vernosa, showing a bit of growth |
Rangitoto field trip
I was demonstrating for the Rangitoto field trip this weekend. It was wet and cold! The students and demonstrators were standing in the rain storm doing vegetation islands survey on Rangitoto Island. We were out in the field for at least 6 hours, and by the end of the trip, everyone clothing were soaking wet. It was miserable! Don't think the students enjoyed the trip, and neither did any of the demonstrators.
I was lucky to have very good students on both days. They were doing their surveys meticulously even though rain was pounding on them. In between short intervals when the rain stopped, I managed to find time to talk to them about writing the reports for their field trip. I realized most of the students do not know how to write a proper scientific report. The courses they are in just tell them they NEED to write a report, but did not really teach them HOW to! Talking to Hannah, we think we had a really good undergraduate education in Florida Tech, where we were taught the foundations - writing scientific papers, citations etc. For example, they were told to write a DESCRIPTIVE title for their graphs, but NOBODY had told them what is a descriptive title! Personally, I think University of Auckland need to look into their courses, and re-structure them to get the students' foundation in order before they expect them to be fully independent.
The funniest thing that happened on the field trip - one of the demonstrators (Esther Dale) - she had the worst students! The two students (suspect that they are a couple!) left the whole class in the middle of the field trip, took an earlier ferry out of Rangitoto Island, and back to Auckland city. Esther was devastated, and confused when she realized they were gone, without informing her.
The rain hasn't stop... it has been raining for 4 days straight now...at least we are certain our water tanks are full :) Luckily, we had stocked up firewood as well, and now it's seems an appropriate time to a have a glass of wine by the fire :)
I was lucky to have very good students on both days. They were doing their surveys meticulously even though rain was pounding on them. In between short intervals when the rain stopped, I managed to find time to talk to them about writing the reports for their field trip. I realized most of the students do not know how to write a proper scientific report. The courses they are in just tell them they NEED to write a report, but did not really teach them HOW to! Talking to Hannah, we think we had a really good undergraduate education in Florida Tech, where we were taught the foundations - writing scientific papers, citations etc. For example, they were told to write a DESCRIPTIVE title for their graphs, but NOBODY had told them what is a descriptive title! Personally, I think University of Auckland need to look into their courses, and re-structure them to get the students' foundation in order before they expect them to be fully independent.
The funniest thing that happened on the field trip - one of the demonstrators (Esther Dale) - she had the worst students! The two students (suspect that they are a couple!) left the whole class in the middle of the field trip, took an earlier ferry out of Rangitoto Island, and back to Auckland city. Esther was devastated, and confused when she realized they were gone, without informing her.
The rain hasn't stop... it has been raining for 4 days straight now...at least we are certain our water tanks are full :) Luckily, we had stocked up firewood as well, and now it's seems an appropriate time to a have a glass of wine by the fire :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)