Ryan Spataro
Day 6:
A final hello to all my fellow bloggers! Today (Service Learn Day 6) concludes this years service learning, and henceforth, this blog. Today, We started our day with a review of DNA sequencing and how the polymerase attaches to a strand of the DNA ad has the capability of copying the strand both ways and replicating it. After that discussion, we headed into the lab. There, we used the micro pipets to insert a variety of chemicals into small tubes along with 1mL of DNA samples from what we prepared last service learning day.
After repeating this process twice for each DNA sample, we placed the small tubes into a Thermocycler so that the DNA samples could be prepared for the gels to undergo gel electrophoresis. This process is effectively to prove our work was successful so we are able to send the DNA off to a lab that will mass sequence our data and send us the results via email in a few weeks. Following this process, Juliana, Sierra, Anna, and I grabbed a bucket and headed out to collect our final trap from our dock in the Newport Bay. Upon arrival, we found that our trap was stuck and after several fail attempt efforts to obtain it, it sank to the bottom of the bay due to the weights we attached to it. However, we were creative I our efforts with the use of a variety of objects like a long pipe, rope, and gardening sheers. This was rather disappointing as this was the trap we had let grow the longest.
We then retuned to school to finish up the PCR process and look at our DNA samples on the gels. Today I learned that a project needs lots of support and lots of pre planing to be able to survive. While it is my last Sage Service Learning day as I am a graduating senior, I am bummed to see that this group will not be continuing next year. I feel that it had lots of potential and, with a little more planning, and possibly had we had the original non profit work out, it could have bee an amazing service project that truly benefitted the costal marine community more than it ended up doing. Today I think, out of the six Cs, we demonstrated compassion, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Compassion in our interactions with each other as we used creativity to brainstorm and communication and collaboration to execute ways to try and obtain our trap. In conclusion, today was a lovely wrap up to my Service Learning experience at Sage Hill and I will definitely miss these times next year at college. Signing off.
Day 5:
Day 4:
Hello readers! Today (Service Learning Day 4) we continued to check up on and collect our traps that we implemented onto a Newport Beach residential dock last month. We started with a brief intro discussion where we began to consider different directions our project could take in terms of more self planned diving days and data analogy via partnerships like the Smithsonian. Since lobster larvae are not popular until the summer, we have decided upon options based more on analyzing and taxonomy of what we have been collecting off local docks. After that, several of us headed out to Ace Crown Hardware. We purchased some weights and sturdy rope to attach to our new trap that consists of a bucket strung through with a frizzier rope to trap and grow new sets of marine organisms to collect next service learning day. We then headed down to the dock and removed our long horizontal trap and placed it in a bucket full of marine water. We decided to leave our vertical trap that we attached to the pylon to sit for another month in hopes that the nesting organisms would continue to grow, multiply, and add to the already developing marine organism colonies. We returned to sort and persevere the organisms that had been growing on our traps by putting them in tubes filled with Ethanol via pipets. Next we plan to look more in depth at the DNA of our data specimens. Then we will send our data out for sequencing, wait for its return and finally add them to the data base. As usual, Anna, Sierra, Ashton, Juliana, and I worked together to efficiently finish our work in a positive and focussed manner. I am excited to start analyzing and sequencing so we may upload our results to the database valued and used frequently by the scientific community. Today I learned the process behind the extraction and analyzing of DNA with Gel Electrophoresis and amplify barcoding genes to be able to sequence the samples. I felt that while today was calm and focused, we have definitely made more steps toward our current goals and I look forward to our work on our remaining days and the rewarding feeling that reaching those goals will bring. Now please enjoy this picture of one of our shrimp larvae.
Day 3:
Today (Service Learning Day 3) was the first day that I felt that we really began to accomplish the first step towards our ultimate goal of setting traps that we can collect to analyze data. We took two of our yarn and pipe traps down to my grandparent’s dock in the Newport Beach Harbor to attach them. The yarn on these traps are meant to mock kelp so that algae and small larval marine biology can latch and grow.
After an original stop to survey the dock and figure out how we planned to attach the traps, Ashton, Juliana, Anna, Sierra, and I went over to Ace Crown Hardware. There we purchased weights, rope, and 24” zip ties in order to properly fasten our traps to the dock. We then returned, we first strung a rope through the opening in the pipe and weights to each end of the trap so that it would sink down so it will stay horizontally level (2.5 feet underwater) as the floating dock fluctuates with the tides. Then we sailor knotted our rope to one of the cleats. Then Anna graciously entered the water as we began the second and trickier installment. While Anna was in the water (such a trooper shout out to her), we handed her the trap and sip ties to fasten to the pylon. We engineered a way for her to stay up with a looped rope attached to a cleat so that she did not have to tread water in her booties. We ended up also looping a rope through the pipe so that the zip ties on the pylon could safely secure this second trap vertically. While this trap will not move with the floating dock, its placement at two feet below water at low tide should keep it fully submerged at all times. After a few tries she got it and we emerged victorious. We plan on checking/removing (depending on how much growth they accumulate) these traps on our next Service Learning Day on February 14th. I was very proud of our positive team work today as we worked together to brainstorm different trap placement tactics and succeeded in installing them, hence meeting our goal for today’s work. Today I learned that planning ahead is an essential seeing as we estimated this trap installment to take at most about an hour but after all was done, it was in actuality more like 2.5-3 hours to fully complete our task. Regardless, I am very excited because it felt as if we took our first step towards completing our goal of service to the marine community and it’s huge role in our lives as Californians and in our ecosystem.
Day 2:
Day 1:
Orientation Day:
Hello! My name is Ryan Spataro and I am one of the senior members of COAST (Coastal Ocean Advocacy Science Team). I was originally drawn to this group because of my love of scuba diving (which I have been doing since 10) and the magical world of marine biology just off our coast. Our main goal this year is to explore and report Panulirus (California Spine Lobster) data within the Crystal Cove State Park MPA (Marine Protected Area). I hope to get out into the water more this year and help our State Park better understand and update logs on local species. I do not particularly like kelp forests but I am excited to conquer my fear and further experience the underwater world just off our California shores.
A final hello to all my fellow bloggers! Today (Service Learn Day 6) concludes this years service learning, and henceforth, this blog. Today, We started our day with a review of DNA sequencing and how the polymerase attaches to a strand of the DNA ad has the capability of copying the strand both ways and replicating it. After that discussion, we headed into the lab. There, we used the micro pipets to insert a variety of chemicals into small tubes along with 1mL of DNA samples from what we prepared last service learning day.
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Day 5:
Hi service buddies! Today (Service Learning Day 5) we returned to our dock coordinates in Newport Beach to collect our bucket trap we set on the previous service day. We started our day today by continuing to prep our specimens for DNA sequencing or Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). We photo documented each of our species (we each took two) and put them in numbered vials. We proceeded to add 180 microliters of buffer substance to the vials and mashed the specimens with small pestles, being mindful to use separate ones as to avoid cross contamination. Then we added 20 micrometers of proteinase and shook the vials. Sierra and I exercised teamwork and communication during this process as we held each others pipettes and helped each other to grind the specimens and add the substances. We finished by putting the vials into the hot water bath at 58 degrees. We then let those sit as we went out to retrieve the traps. This week our trap was a bucket trap interwoven with star cross hatched yarn to trap and collect marine organisms. We then returned and continued the PCR process. We took our samples out of the hot water bath and voted them for 15 seconds. Then added 200 microliters of AL buffer and 200 of Ethanol into our vials and vortexes again. Then we transferred our samples via pipette into a separation vial and implemented them into the spin column where we spun for 1 minute at 6000g. We then added wash buffers 1 and then 2 and followed each of those with 1 minute each in the spin column. Finally we are almost there in our project. We will be sending off these DNA samples to be analyzed and returned so we can put them into public logs for the betterment of the marine and coastal community. Today I learned that the PCR process has many steps and you have to be rather attentive to ensure you correctly make your way through the process to find the accurate results. Looking forward, I am excited to finish up what I can as a senior in this service project on our final service learning day. On a closing note, please enjoy some photo documentation of today's lab process. Pictured first is my photo documentation of my small specimens floating in ethanol in a vial. Then is a picture of me vortexing my specimens after soaking in the hot water bath. Finally, the last picture is one of our final DNA samples. Enjoy and see you next time!
Day 4:
Hello readers! Today (Service Learning Day 4) we continued to check up on and collect our traps that we implemented onto a Newport Beach residential dock last month. We started with a brief intro discussion where we began to consider different directions our project could take in terms of more self planned diving days and data analogy via partnerships like the Smithsonian. Since lobster larvae are not popular until the summer, we have decided upon options based more on analyzing and taxonomy of what we have been collecting off local docks. After that, several of us headed out to Ace Crown Hardware. We purchased some weights and sturdy rope to attach to our new trap that consists of a bucket strung through with a frizzier rope to trap and grow new sets of marine organisms to collect next service learning day. We then headed down to the dock and removed our long horizontal trap and placed it in a bucket full of marine water. We decided to leave our vertical trap that we attached to the pylon to sit for another month in hopes that the nesting organisms would continue to grow, multiply, and add to the already developing marine organism colonies. We returned to sort and persevere the organisms that had been growing on our traps by putting them in tubes filled with Ethanol via pipets. Next we plan to look more in depth at the DNA of our data specimens. Then we will send our data out for sequencing, wait for its return and finally add them to the data base. As usual, Anna, Sierra, Ashton, Juliana, and I worked together to efficiently finish our work in a positive and focussed manner. I am excited to start analyzing and sequencing so we may upload our results to the database valued and used frequently by the scientific community. Today I learned the process behind the extraction and analyzing of DNA with Gel Electrophoresis and amplify barcoding genes to be able to sequence the samples. I felt that while today was calm and focused, we have definitely made more steps toward our current goals and I look forward to our work on our remaining days and the rewarding feeling that reaching those goals will bring. Now please enjoy this picture of one of our shrimp larvae.
Day 3:
Today (Service Learning Day 3) was the first day that I felt that we really began to accomplish the first step towards our ultimate goal of setting traps that we can collect to analyze data. We took two of our yarn and pipe traps down to my grandparent’s dock in the Newport Beach Harbor to attach them. The yarn on these traps are meant to mock kelp so that algae and small larval marine biology can latch and grow.
After an original stop to survey the dock and figure out how we planned to attach the traps, Ashton, Juliana, Anna, Sierra, and I went over to Ace Crown Hardware. There we purchased weights, rope, and 24” zip ties in order to properly fasten our traps to the dock. We then returned, we first strung a rope through the opening in the pipe and weights to each end of the trap so that it would sink down so it will stay horizontally level (2.5 feet underwater) as the floating dock fluctuates with the tides. Then we sailor knotted our rope to one of the cleats. Then Anna graciously entered the water as we began the second and trickier installment. While Anna was in the water (such a trooper shout out to her), we handed her the trap and sip ties to fasten to the pylon. We engineered a way for her to stay up with a looped rope attached to a cleat so that she did not have to tread water in her booties. We ended up also looping a rope through the pipe so that the zip ties on the pylon could safely secure this second trap vertically. While this trap will not move with the floating dock, its placement at two feet below water at low tide should keep it fully submerged at all times. After a few tries she got it and we emerged victorious. We plan on checking/removing (depending on how much growth they accumulate) these traps on our next Service Learning Day on February 14th. I was very proud of our positive team work today as we worked together to brainstorm different trap placement tactics and succeeded in installing them, hence meeting our goal for today’s work. Today I learned that planning ahead is an essential seeing as we estimated this trap installment to take at most about an hour but after all was done, it was in actuality more like 2.5-3 hours to fully complete our task. Regardless, I am very excited because it felt as if we took our first step towards completing our goal of service to the marine community and it’s huge role in our lives as Californians and in our ecosystem.
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| Ashton and I preparing the trap for water installment |
Day 2:
Hello Bloggers! So today we had our second day of Service Learning. Here at COAST, we started out by planning our next four service learning days, deciding on dates to dive the coast, set larval collection traps on docks, and continue to construct traps that can be approved by our Coast Guard. We then spent a little while constructing vertical traps with tufts of grass-imitating twine to attach to the docks as mentioned before. We then took lunch and returned to an excessive where we learned how to appropriately sort through data. We also discussed the most effective way to do so moving forward so we can accurately collect information. What stuck out to me today was the sheer amount of organisms that can live in just a small clump of algae that we can’t even see until inspected closely under a microscope. I really enjoyed these activities today seeing as I really love Marine Biology and seeing the ways organisms function up close. Today I feel was a prep day to further serve our community on our upcoming dive and data trips that we have set up both on and off service learning days. I developed the needed skills to navigate our main purpose of data collection of larval marine organisms. In terms of challenges, I really disliked the smells of the salty organisms and algae and I worked around that but rolling up my sleeves and toughing it out. Today I demonstrated compassion in my work as I delicately worked with small fragile organisms like the baby brittle stars as I noted their characteristic under the microscope. I didn’t do much soul searching during our work today but I learned that I have a high regard for all living creatures and tried to be as delicate and gentle with the lives of the little ocean organisms. Our collaboration is very good within our group as we all work hand in hand but we plan to improve communications with the organizations, such as the coastal services, that we are trying to partner with by negotiating ways to prove our dedication to the service project so that we might have access to their resources and accommodations. In conclusion, today was another successful service learning day and I will continually be preparing for the next one to come.
Day 1:
Today on our first actual day of service learning (technically day 2 I guess), we researched information on the lobster species that we will be collecting data on and different types of traps we could build/use to gather the necessary larvae we need to study. After doing some research, we started to construct the traps that the state park asked us to complete and also built some variations of our own. I enjoyed building the traps because it was oddly therapeutic to string the ropes through perforated sheets of plastic. However, I did not enjoy the research at the beginning of the day. My group researched different types of traps and had to read through many documents and take notes on each type. After two hours of this, we were told that we were not going to be using any of these methods except for maybe one or two out of the many. So I felt that we ultimately spent two hours doing that for no result. I did not feel extremely connected to the community today seeing as today was more of a prep day for the days yet to come in which we will be getting out and more actively serving our marine community. I developed skills in creating lobster traps and learned about the stages of life that our specimens go through and how that will affect our methods by which we trap them. I also learned that I enjoy making these traps because as I said before, it was rather calming. I loved the images of the little lobster larvae that we will be collecting because they were so cute and look like little gummy worms but in lobster version. Finally, I believe that I could improve communication and collaboration with my group members by more actively talking outside of the service learning date so that we are able to proactively plan ahead for our diving/ dock trapping trips in the future. Otherwise we all work well together and got a good start on our traps with the materials we had that were provided by Dr. Haney. I am excited to get out and start serving in the next service learning days and had a nice day on our first real day.
Hello! My name is Ryan Spataro and I am one of the senior members of COAST (Coastal Ocean Advocacy Science Team). I was originally drawn to this group because of my love of scuba diving (which I have been doing since 10) and the magical world of marine biology just off our coast. Our main goal this year is to explore and report Panulirus (California Spine Lobster) data within the Crystal Cove State Park MPA (Marine Protected Area). I hope to get out into the water more this year and help our State Park better understand and update logs on local species. I do not particularly like kelp forests but I am excited to conquer my fear and further experience the underwater world just off our California shores.
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