Woodcock Dam Tour

This is a picture of our group looking down into Woodcock Dam. Joe was really suprised that we didn't try spitting into the water from the bridge, so we firgured we'd all do it at the same time!

Playin' in the Creek

Yesterday we got to get a little wet an play in French Creek. We found some mussels while walking around in the water. Some of us got more then a little wet when it started to rain. Matt was attacked by a large alligator, just kidding it was a floaty, but he did ride it down the creek.

We Wander into a Pitt...Research Lab

We Went out to the Pitt Research Labs in Pymatuning. Aaron, a Pitt grad student meet, and gave us a small tour of the facilties. Then we headed down the road to a steam, and went through leaf bags. It was a fun and educating experince!!!!!!

Pymatuning Spillway

We travelled to the Pymatuning Spillway today to witness one of the most disgusting things I have seen. Hundreds of carp flopping on top of each other fighting for the bread the people throw into the spillway, it was a mass feeding frenzy...

EDDIE'S & CASEY'S

On Wednesday we went to Eddie's FOOTLONG HOT DOGS. As the name says, they are a foot long. We all ordered one and when I tried mine :-[], they were delicioussss. Then we went to CASEY'S to eat an ice cream. There were like 20 different flavors, most of them unknown to me. They were very good.

THUMBS UP!

Collecting Bugs Upstream

Yesterday we went upstream of Woodcock dam to collect and compare the diversity of species. We found that water pennies, mayflies, blackfly larvae were abundant. All the species we found were between the moderate to sensitive range. This means that upstream is healthier. Crayfish all seemed to want to be caught. In the end, we found about ten crayfish ranging from small to large in size.

Trees

On Tuesday, we met with Mark Lewis AKA The Tree Guy. He knew almost everything about trees, specially from PA. He showed us about some trees of the area, how to recognize some and how things work in the forest. My favorite part was when he showed us how many did a red pine grew every year and like of predicted what happened to it.

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Upstream Chemistry

Bats

Before we actually saw any bats, Wil Taylor tought us about bats and their great value to the ecosystem. Bats eat about 1200 bugs during one good hour of hunting, for about three hours a night. He also named all nine bats that live here, and showed us pictures of them. After that, we went to look up into the bat boxes and got to see the awakening bats. Finaly, we got to stand and watch all the bats fly out of the boxes and listen to their sonar with a special tool. But this was at a cost, bugbites!

Admissions Speech

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We were given a speech by one of the admissions counselors about how to find the right college, and that when applying do not apply to over 6 schools. We also learned about what Allegheny has to offer us. Also aways be on good terms with your guidance counselor. They are a big help.

Electrofishing

This past week we have learned and gotten to see many cool things, but one of the coolest so far is when we got to go Electroshocking fish. Electroshocking is when you put a small amount of electric current into the water to temporarily stun the fish, making it easier to catch them. We caught alot of small fish like a baby Bass, some Darters, and other small fish. We did get to catch a nice Rainbow Trout, but we couldnt find anymore big fish.

Green Allegheny

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We learned that Allegheny is trying to go green. I think it was cool that they are trying to do that. I think if collenges start doing that. A whole new generation will be better at keeping the world a better place. If Allegheny goes greener that would be better.

AMD

On the left is an image of AMD (Acid Mine Drainage), we learned about this from DCNR employee Will Taylor. Water from the abandoned mines flows into creeks and raises the acidity levels greatly. It also contains high amounts of iron. We learned how to seperate the iron with amonia and hydrogen peroxide. And we finished with a game attempting to replecate the life of a coal miner. It was all fascinating and even pretty fun!

Owling

we went looking for owls monday night, starting off poorly. After about the third stop with the bird calls we had much luck. We saw two full grown barred owls and a younger one. We might have heard more than that, i believe i heard four or five. It was a very nice way to end our second day.

Day 1

first day at camp we played some embarassing games and then moved onto a GPS activity. It was a way to tour the campus and practice using a GPS. ( We finished second to last, but did finish)

First Day at Camp

When everyone first arrived at the dorm, Matt introduced us to an interesting game titled "Bibbity Bobbity". The only real purpose of the game is to get to know each other, but it did provide some entertainment for the group. It was great when someone would point and shout "elephant!" and whoever was on the recieving end would make an elephant noise and use thier arm as a preted trunk! (all part of the game of course)

My first adventure.....

Today was a great day we did many interesting things.First we went to the Creek and we did some experiments and we analyze the temperature,the ph, the turbidity,alkalinity,nitrogen and the phosphorus of the water........Then we caught some invertabrates to determine if there can life in pollution or not....was an excellent day.....!!!!

My First Day

My first full day was awsome. We went to the creek. Then we did test on the creek. Secound we looked at bugs in the water. We also caught crayfish when we were looking for bugs. Third we get to see the water come out of the dam. finally we got to play in the sand box, but it's really not it's called a stream table. Its awsome!!!!!!!!!!! Then we came to the cumputers and now blogging. Than I posted this so have fun reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is by Heather Hill

GPS are very confusing

We had a scavenger hunt all over campus!!! over campus!!! GPS and a set of coordinates were the two things we were given to off of. So are four Group went our separates ways, my group first went to the abstract alligator by an old armory were we got our next set of coordinates. Then next our GPS sent us across the road, then they went crazy. The compass that had told us which way to go where jumping back all over the place South, North, Southwest, East, West. Finally we got to a brigde over a small stream and walkway and saw another team down by the stream. So we made our way down there to find the next set of coordinates, but the bush it was in had nettle by it!! Some of us got stung and scratched all night. The GPS stayed insane the rest of the time we used it. and at the end it wanted us to climb a 10ft wall. I have only conclued that GPSes are very confusing.

Scavenger Hunt

Last night we did a campus scavenger hunt, where we split up into groups of three or less. These small groups would use GPSs two get to our next activity.We learnd how to set coordinates into the GPS and we also learned to comunicate with the other group members because sometimes the points were set incorrectly.