BREAKING: Natalia Falcon Overthrows Marshall McMunn as Professor!!!*



Tuesday morning the class received the devastating news that our one and only Blathers, Marshall McMunn, was bedridden and confined to his place of residence after testing positive for COVID-19. This author finds it quite suspicious that this would happen the same day that student Natalia Falcon happens to take her seat as MC for the day and suspects that a coup was staged to seize power. Even so, the class bravely fought through this trying time and were able to adapt and meet with their groups in class as normal and with Marshall over zoom. Thankfully, the class structure for today was the same as the last couple sessions and each group made progress toward their specified scope of study.


šŸŒ±šŸ«¶some gentle reminders...⛲šŸµ

  • give it up for week 9 errbody

  • next wednesday is our last day of class (?!?!?!?!?!?!?!)

  • paper’s are due next friday 6/7 EOD

    • guys we fr have to lock in

  • put yourself first + drink water

  • keep up with your lab notebook

  • lookout for the class evaluations! 

    • especially valuable bc this class is barely 1 quarter old


      šŸŒŠšŸŸa deeper dive into each group's workšŸŠšŸ 


      BoldnessšŸ’ŖšŸ˜¤❕

      “The boldness group finished collecting data and are starting to analyze data in excel and R studio to find any notable trends. We had to collect more boxelder bugs so they were not the same group tested toward then end; however not much has changed in their behavior. Boxelders seem to be more bold/ curious because they have visited the most novel objects and took the longest time to start moving. Next steps are to analyze the data and put it in R studio to ensure that our findings have some sort of significance.” 

      - Jakob Lopez, 2k24

      field notes from boldness group's trials, luv 2 c it


      PalatabilityšŸ½šŸ›šŸ˜‹

      “Today the palatability group finished collecting data in the field and used ImageJ to measure the lengths and widths of nymphs! We have a few observations in our notes that we will try to figure out how to quantify and report on such as rearranging nymphs  and bringing nymphs from one hole to another. Next time we will focus our efforts on running statistical tests with our data to see what conclusions we can or cannot draw from the data!” - Rachel Atkins, 2k24


      teeniest of tiniest of nymphs from palatability group, imagej users unite!


      coloršŸ–ŒšŸŽØšŸ’

      “The color group spent today trying to right their mistakes from the past Friday that we don’t speak of but unfortunately, the story played out in the same fashion. Out of a total of 30 more “preference” trials for the bugs, only one (1) successfully mated. We’re thinking the teen soapberrys were tuckered out and just don’t have the stamina yet (before you ask, playing careless whisper was not enough to set the mood this time). Other than semi-creepily supervising the trials as if we were chaperones at their high school prom, we spent today writing up the methods and introduction sections and getting encouragement from our ever devoted in-sickness-and-in-health dedicated prof (not Natalia).” - Alice Ardon, 2k24


      the only success from today. we rate today’s trials a 0/10 would not research again


      dissectionšŸ”¬šŸ›šŸ¦ 

      “Today, the dissection group finished up data collection by counting cultures on our D4 (4th dilution) petri dishes and worked on analyzing data on R. For counting cultures, we used a light table to get a better view of the cultures that developed. With a sharpie in one hand and a clicker in another, we were able to count our ranging number of cultures; one reached as high as 1100 :scream:Using R, we also started analyzing data; for instance, we compared total gut length of each bug to the number of CFU (or culture forming unit). So far, results have shown to be inconclusive šŸ˜¤, but we plan on continuing analyzing data on Friday.” - Natalia Falcon, 2k24


      interesting plate of cultures and serious R studio work (not pictured: mamta’s earbuds)


      for next time...šŸ•˜

      - marshall's back :D

      - group work: no more data collection (?) 

      - mostly data analysis and writing papers

      and that concludes today’s class! see y’all on fri we’re it’ll finally be my turn to be in charge
      xoxo, alice

      *allegedly❕ 

      (disclaimer: no one was overthrown and all jokes aside the biggest shoutout to Natalia for stepping up, she slayed and gave professor realness all day)

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