Conner Hatz

   Today was day 6 of Service Learning for COAST and we found out that the group is being folded because the group fell apart and did not follow the original plan. So the Juniors including myself had to take part in the Junior Service Learning day which means that we listened to some of the faculty led projects and talked to the seniors for ideas on what to do for next year. I personally liked Dr. Haney’s garden group because of the fact that it includes sciences that I like and it also raises awareness to efforts for the environment. I always believe that the environment has had problems because of humans. I believe that it is our responsibility to restore the environment back to normal levels with no smog in the air. If more people have gardens than it will help with the air quality because plants have photosynthesis pathways which takes out carbon dioxide from the air and replaces it with Oxygen. This helps restore the carbon cycle that we messed up when we released the carbon from deep within the crust (oil).

When the juniors were apart of the COAST group, we aided with the extraction of the DNA from the samples that the seniors prepared. Me and Isabelle helped Dr. Haney setup for the lab associated with the extraction process. This process required centrifuging multiple times to be able to get the dense DNA to stay in the filter while all the fluids and the buffers pass through and wash all the excess off the DNA. The buffers also helped with cleaning the DNA and isolation. Once we were done with this we set the samples up for PCR which isolates certain strains of DNA and then amplifies those strands. These strands are copied and those copied copy more DNA strands and after a few times there are millions of DNA sequences. Which allows for the DNA amplification and when you add the DNA to the Gel it allows for the DNA to stretch out by the ions flowing through the DNA. And in the DNA ruler it shows what samples have what in them and when we record this data we can add it to our presentation and show the results that we got.

    Today was the fifth day of Service Learning and we gathered our traps that we placed in certain places. For the group that I am in we put traps at Strode’s house in Huntington Beach and Los Alamitos bay. We split our group into two groups, so we were more effective. This time we had Isabelle come with us to help collect data. The Groups were Ian, Mike, Isabelle and I, went to the Los alamitos group to grab those traps. While Strode went to his house to grab those traps. It was helpful for us because it gave us more time to take the data back to the lab and analyze the data into separate tubes. Isabelle and I worked together to put organisms into a cup with ethanol to viales of ethanol. We worked well as a group as Isabelle separated organisms from the water into the cup of ethanol. Then Ian and Mike both gave me viales with certain colors for the different organisms. Then I was responsible for  grabbing the organisms from the ethanol cup and put them into their appropriate vials. We used team work to condense the work down and for everyone to be apart of everything. I was able to talk to Isabelle and work with her for the first time and it was nice because she brought aspects to the table that were new and I was not expecting it. She also helped with ideas for pulling the traps out of the water in such a way that no one had to jump into the water. The only problem we ran into during today was fitting the traps in Ian’s car so they would not spill and get all over the place. All in all our group was pretty efficient in getting the traps and gathering data, so we can send it off to get sequenced. We are helping our community by monitoring the life of lobster larvae and from that we can see if they are being overfished and if rules need to be set. Or put sanctions on fishers from gathering them for commercial use. We were able to solve problems that we came across with brainstorming and we have paved the path for the following years to come. We also have set up ideas for catching them in the midst of their breeding season and to be able to have data at different times of the year and we can see if the data is concurrent with what we hypothesized to be true.

  Day 4, today as a group we set up the traps in different places. We all went off in small groups to put as many traps out as we can and be efficient with it. The group I was in consisted of Ian, Dylan and Mike. We first went to Dylan's house that is being remodeled and has a dock. We came across a problem early as we only had zip ties to strap the traps down to the dock. The dock we were on did not have metal rings around it in the water. So we had to scour through his house to find something and we found some rope. We then had to figure out a way to tie them and at the same time make sure they would sink deep enough in the water. It ended up sitting about 5 feet into the water and others varied from there as some were 3ft 10 in and went up to 7ft. We made the traps in los Alamitos Bay deeper in the water because the water is much higher on the dock. During this time, I felt connected because we had someone stop us because they did not know us and they were asking what we were doing and we explained how it was for the community and we were helping the larvae population and he ended up loving the idea and was happy that we were servicing the community. It helped too because we helped solve our own problems by putting our minds together and trying new things. It also helped that we were able to put 4 traps out, while other groups put 2 out. On top of this I was able to communicate with Dylan and solve problems, despite not talking much outside of school setting. This picture is of Dylan strapping the trap to a cleat on a dock. He does sailing outside of sage and knew knots and ways for strapping the traps to the cleats.

Day 3 on this service learning day, the people that were not scuba certified, including myself, watched scuba videos and completed some course work. This was fun because this group gained a better knowledge of scuba diving and we got closer as a group. We used collaboration skills to figure out some of the problems we encountered. For example, when we came to a problem about dive computers compared to dive tables, we talked through this process and came to a conclusion as a group. This project that we are working on will help in the long run. It will help in the long run because of the fact that our group is servicing the Crystal cove scientist by building some traps and then putting them in their water. The reason we need to be certified for this is because we will not be able to hold our breaths for that long to set the trap up and if we encounter a problem we need to be able have excess air and be prepared. We were able to find solutions to the problems we encountered because of relying on our group members. It helped us to because we were also able to see who was connected to the group and who is serious about certifying and the people that our doing this because they are forced. I am not going to throw anyone under the bus, but some people are not as connected as some of the other members as we had to fill them in on a meeting that they were suppose to go to. This day was really helpful for people that need to be certified because we completed the course work. Without the help of my group members I would have not been able to complete the course work and I would still have some questions on the material. My group members helped me understand some of the concepts of scuba diving for example when it came to the moor line and the anchor line I got them mixed up and we were able to solve the problems together. One thing I learned is that I will probably never be able to binge watch something again because of the fact that I lost some of the important details towards the end and lost focus very quickly as a result.

Today was the second day of Service Learning and we did research towards making traps and actually started to make them. We split up into 3 groups to tackle the tasks of the day. I was in the group that was responsible for analyzing the data of the papers and see what they were using it for. Most of the papers we read had to do with the different bait, the fishing season, the fishermen and what they do when they got certain lobsters. Some of the regulations were strict like they can only have male ones because females are more important to keeping their species alive and reproduce.

I enjoyed the work we did because it has to do with science and it is cool actually doing the research and having hands on experiences with building the traps for lobsters. It was fun working with some of the people in the group that I have never had a chance with in the past. I felt really connected with the people in my group because we made jobs for each of us to do. It was kind of like an assembly line because someone would untangle the rope and then someone would use it for weaving the traps on polymer with holes in it.

I learned about myself today because I got a bit impatient with the weaving process and had to relax before continuing. I showed some integrity because I still helped with the projects and ended up doing another job to help out with my group.

I  can help out more with my group because some of the time I would unravel plenty of rope and I could have spent more time weaving with my group. I was able to contribute to my group in ways of collaboration because we organized the jobs and worked to complete the task at hand. I was also helpful with the clean up process because I was able to help people by sweeping up their trash and make everyone more efficient instead of sitting around and staying to work with the groups. I look forward to the future with this project because we are helping with the community of science.

Hi, my name is Conner Hatz and I am taking part in the COAST project. I mostly interested in this project because I am interested in sciences and this project offers a unique opportunity that provides Scuba diving alongside studying science. This opportunity of learning more about Marine biology and to see if that is the kind of science I would like to further my education in or not. I look forward to this year because I am excited in seeing life under the sea with my own eyes.