ADK FIELD ECOLOGY

INTRO

In this short two week program, I got to learn more than I could ever imagine about so many fields of natural science. While this course was titled Field Ecology, I got to learn about everything from botany to ornithology, and ichthyology, and everything in between. This experience goes deeper than surface level on all of the factors that influence an environment. With this new understanding, I feel that I will never look at environments outdoors the same.

Throughout this StoryMap I bolded all of the species of plant/animal that we identified and found along with our teachers.

I also made lists of all of the equipment that we used per module.

7/15 BOTANY

Equipment: N/A

In our introduction to botany and common plants, we started by learning the background of all plants. In a pavilion adjacent to the parking lot we learned about how chloroplasts formed, as well as photosynthesis as a whole. We then learned about the different classifications of plants and how they arose. Field Ecologist Steve Langdon told us how to differentiate trees from bushes and shrubs. Then he told us how the plants we have today evolved from algae (generally) using a cladogram that had landmark events such as “developed vascular tissue” to show what changed between the featured species. Additionally he added factoids such as the fact that there were 4000 species of graminoids, including 220 sedges and 278 grasses in New York alone. After this we headed down the Boreal Life trail, with Steve checking out plants along the trail. He referenced Ethnobotany as he showed us how Dogbane was used by indigenous populations as twine. He also showed us how to Identify different conifers, explaining how the needles of a Red/Black Spruce are 4 sided, while the needles of a Balsam Fir are 2 sided. While these two trees have needles that arise from the stem, White Pine has fascicles of 5 needles that arise from the stem. He told us other factoids such as the fact that you can use Striped Maple or Witch Hobble as toilet paper. He also told us how some of these plants interact with the surrounding animals, such as how moose scrape the bark off of Striped Maple/Moosewood, and how Pitcher Plants are insectivores. He also told us about other trees such as the American Beech and the Eastern Hemlock. Lastly, in the forest he bent down and showed us many other small plants such as the symbiotic Indian Pipe, the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, which prefers very specific conditions, and the Indian Cucumber-Root. We then went to the bog, the environment in which Steve specializes in. He explained to us that one of the reasons why there was a lack of common upland plants inside of the bog was the acidity of the soil, which was around 4. He shoved his whole hand into the bog and pulled out a sopping wet handful of peat moss, which he explained was not yet decomposed plant material. The rate of decomposition was greatly slowed due to the wetness of the bog. He said that peat moss held ⅓ of soils carbon worldwide. He identified the common plants inside of the bog such as the Sphagnum Moss, the Black Spruce, Tamarack and the Pitcher Plant, but he had to cut his presentation short as we were running short on time.

7/15 WATERSHEDS Equipment: Flags, Tape Measure, Meter Stick, Rock Size Index, Rosgen Channel Type.

For the watersheds module my group and I headed to Smitty Creek to check out the creek and the general St. Regis watershed. First, we checked out a culvert on the side of the road. Mel described how they were very important, but normally they were built on a short budget and were not very good for both the people and the environment. She explained how important the resistance and resilience of the culvert was if it flooded, as a culvert inadequacy in either of those categories would need a large amount of extra maintenance after rains/floods. We then went down to the creek and waded inside of it. We circled certain features of the creek such as the amount of vegetation, pollution, and the different water features such as runs and pools. After this they showed us how to do a field assessment, in which we assessed the bankfull width, the various depths, the kinds of rocks, and predicted the flood prone area. We used these various recorded values to address the Rosgen channel type of the channel that we surveyed. We ended up surveying the Little Aldo Creek, and we used these strategies we learned earlier, utilizing the tools that we had, including orange flags to demarcate the bankfull borders, a tape measure to measure the width, and a meter stick to measure the depths and rock sizes. We ended up determining that this was an E4 channel in the end.

7/16 FORESTRY

Equiment: Scaling/Biltmore stick, Wedge Prism, Increment Borer

In this forestry module we learned a lot about the different levels ecosystems associated with trees from Dr. Justin Waskiewicz. We also learned a lot about how to utilize different tools to figure out more about these ecosystems. Justin started off by teaching us an analogy about forest ecosystems. He taught that a forest ecosystem has parts, patterns, and processes similar to a car or another machine. He helped us differentiate between a Birch and a Beech by the bark and the serrations. He also explained the various strata in the forest, for example the understory of the firs, the overstory of hardwoods and others, and the supercanopy of White Pine . The varied shade tolerance of these trees creates this vertical variation. We then practiced mensuration using a scaling stick. We first measured the diameter and height of the trees using a ruler that scales with perspective. We learned to be 24 inches and 66 feet away from our targets respectively. I learned that I needed 15 steps to reach 66 feet. I was very interested to hear about Dwarf Mistletoe as well. 

He then taught us how to use wedge prisms to gauge information about an area. We also learned about Basal Area and the Basal Area Factor. A smaller Basal Area Factor zooms in further. Microtopography of pits and mounds normally occurs when trees fall down. We then bored into trees and took samples. I learned that hemlocks, firs, and pines show much better rings than birches. We also got to know how to identify false rings and how stumps can live on after they are cut.

7/16 GEOLOGY

Equipment: Brunton Compass, Joseph's Staff

In this module we were taught by Matt Clemens about geology, or the study of the earth's physical structure, substance, and history. He first used analogies to differentiate rocks from minerals. He described a mineral as a specific cut of meat, ie one animal and one solid part of it. He then described rocks as sausages, as in a mixture of different cuts and rocks. He then classified rocks into sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. He also handed out two sheets, one showing the classification of sand/silt/clay and then the different sedimentary rocks associated with them. After this we learned about Steno's laws, which now seem like common sense, but they appear to still be important. We then learned about the various layers of rocks from the O Horizon to the R Horizon. We later identified this in the hole that he brought us to on campus. We identified the E and B horizons by seeing where the soil was gray and without oxidized iron to the red B layer.  

Lastly we measured the size, strike and dip of a theoretical rock face near the library. I found this to be the hardest part of the module because I could not wrap my head around the difference between dip and strike. We were able to determine these using Mr. Clemens' handy Brunton compass. We then utilized another one of his tools, the Jacob's staff, to figure out the height of the rock face. Each volunteer would stand some feet up the hill, and a person who had the staff would look at them through the compass, measuring how high up the staff they were, and recorded it, getting a final reading of 386 cm tall.

7/17 WETLAND ECOLOGY

Equipment: Dutch Auger, Munsell Color Chart

The wetland module was taught on the 17th by Dr. Dan Spada, a wetland biologist. Wetlands are locations in which the soil is normally saturated with water, either due to poor drainage or periodic flooding. In the Freer Hall he first explained how the Adirondack park became what it is now. He mentioned in 1892 the Adirondack Park was created, which was two-thirds of what the Adirondacks are now. Later, in the late 1900s the park started to change again through Nelson Rockefeller and his brother. Though they were not able to turn it into a national park, they were able to pass the Adirondack Park Agency Act and the State Land Plan, meaning that state land could not be touched, and that permits were needed to build on private land. Lastly, the NYS Freshwater Wetland Act of 1975 led to mapping efforts and various land being considered wetland due to government standards. Many of these standards were based on hydric soils and hydrophytes, as in soils and plants of water. The hydrophytes can be classified from OBL (obligated to live in the wetlands) to UPL (almost always found in the uplands), and using this classification, we can determine if the land below is wetland or not. The last thing he taught us in the hall was how to use the Munsell color chart to determine the chroma rating, and therefore determine if the soil is of a wetland or not.

 Once we got to the wetland on campus, he first gave us a tree identification lesson, differentiating birch from beech and elm. He then explained the metallic sheen on the water to be a bacterial byproduct instead of oil, by showing us that it broke up into pieces instead of swirled. Further down the wetland boardwalk he began to show us the common wetland shrubs including the Speckled Alder, with its very interesting alder berries, or the Ilex mucronata with its vibrantly colored berries. He also identified the willow as a plant that mainly resides in wetlands and that can come in many different morphologies. After this, he used a tool called the Dutch Auger to take core samples of the soil and compare them to the Munsell color book. We were able to use extra senses including that of hearing to see if the soil was made of peat or sand. We could hear the sound of sand against the auger and therefore realize that we are no longer digging into a peat/dirt substance. My favorite part of this module was after we visited the wetland on campus we visited a kettle hole bog, in which there was a large amount of sphagnum moss on top of many feet of saturated peat. In this exotic environment we could find many carnivorous plants such as the Sundew, the Bladderwort, and the Pitcher Plant.

7/17 CASCADE HIKE

No Equipment

This module was far less educational than the previous ones. We were lead up the hill by Beth Adams, an experienced mountaineer. At the bottom of the hill she explained to us that the trail was to be closed down due to erosion, as many hikers would hike on the edge of the trails, breaking up the dirt and leading to water stripping away much of the soil. This erosion also led to the death of much of the vegetation on the hill. Because of this, Beth told us to stick to one path on the trail to minimize the damage. The further up the mountain we went, the more differences we noticed due to the altitude. While the trees at the bottom of the hill could reach very tall heights, the trees at a higher altitude did not grow very large. The ground on the trail went from predominantly dirt/mud and ground cover such as ferns to largely solid rock faces. We would stop every 30 or so minutes to rest and let everybody catch their breath. After what seemed like many hours, we finally reached the top and got to witness some very nice views of the surrounding mountains and sky. We could even see our own Paul Smith's van from our vantage point. Overall it was a very fun adventure, and I had a great time.

I also carried a pet rock with me along the hike to deposit at the top of the mountain and I named it Clyde.

7/17-18 HERPETOLOGY

Equipment: Tape Measure, Flags (for Transect) At 7:30 on the 17th, in preparation for our next herpetology module, my group went out on campus near a pond as the sun went down to get an introduction to herpetology. We were being watched over by Dr. Valorie Titus as we wrote down all of our observations about this environment. Some people caught animals, and I saw three frogs on Water Lily pads, but overall this was just to get us comfortable with the field. 

The next day Dr. Val gave us a presentation about her work, as well as herpetology as a whole. She first started by talking about the taxa, which she described as "antiquated." It was considered "antiquated" due to the fact that reptiles were grouped with amphibians instead of birds, even though they are closer to birds with their genetic lineage. She listed the different types of amphibians, starting with the Salamanders and Frogs that we may see along our later herpetology assignment. She also mentioned Caecilians very briefly, which I greatly appreciated because I am a big fan of them. She then listed the various Snakes, Lizards and Turtles of the area, saying that it would be unlikely for any of us to find a lizard. The last thing that she taught before we left for the forest was the various techniques to trap herps (herpetofauna/all of the previously mentioned animals). She described various types of nets such as the seine net, which is dragged along a stream from bank to bank as it is held by 2 people, the dip net, which is closer to your classic one person fishing net that is dipped into the water. She then spoke about the traps including the minnow trap and the hoop/basking traps, often used to trap Turtles, among others. 

After this we went onto the same trail in the VIC to try out the transects that we proposed in our class. After we learned that 30 minutes would be far too long for 50 meters, we ended up doing 100 meters in 25 minutes. To do the exercise we used techniques such as disturbing the soil, and looking for herps under the top layer of pine needles, as well as rolling over rocks and logs and looking beneath them well. This survey was meant to be quantitative, so we only checked the area of about 5 feet in each direction of us horizontally, and we did not check all areas of grass, only some random spots. In this transect, we had a group of four. Two of us started at one end, while the other two started at the other, and we met in the middle, meaning each of us only really did 50 or so meters. After doing three different transects, we were able to find 5 different animals, but they were all Red-Backed Salamanders. All of them were found under logs. We also found one more Red-Backed Salamander as well as a group of eggs outside the transect. Other groups were able to find a Brown Snake and a Spotted Salamander, but overall it seemed that the Red-Backed Salamanders were the most common.

7/18-7/19 SMALL MAMMALS

Equipment: Tape Measure, Flags (For transect), Sherman Trap, Bait Balls,

This module started at dusk on 7/20, in which Dr. Dan Bogan, an assistant professor at Siena College prepared us for the module that we would do the next morning. He explained that we would be setting small mammal traps in two different settings and compare the two. He first taught us how these Sherman traps worked, how to fix them, and how to make the peanut butter-oat bait balls for the critters. We then set the traps in transects, one in a more open field of long grass, and another in the deeper forest, and made sure that each of them had bait prepared inside of them. That night we were also told to make both a null and alternative hypothesis about the number of animals or the species diversity. My null hypothesis was that there would be no difference in number of species or small mammals, but my alternative hypothesis was that "I believe that the field will have a smaller population and a smaller species diversity than that of the forest." I thought this because of how much more open the field was to predators, and how many more niches were present in the forest.

The second day of this module was far more hands on than that of many others, with much of its time being consumed by hands-on activities. First we went out and checked our small mammal traps. In the field we found only one animal, which was a Meadow Vole. Dan was able to identify its age as adult due to its reproductive organs. Unlike the field, in the forest we were able to find three animals, which were all Deer Mice. While they differed in sex, age, size and color, they still looked a lot more alike to each other than they looked to the vole. The fact that we found three species in the forest partially proved my hypothesis right, as there were more animals total, but overall my hypothesis was wrong, as the amount of species diversity for the two was equal. 

After this survey, we packed up the traps, brought them back to our room in Freer, and cleaned them off, taking out half-eaten bait balls, and cleaning out the slugs. Once the traps were cleaned we were given worksheets to get a head start on, and headed off to lunch. The first questions of the worksheet only involved using a field guide to differentiate multiple species from each other, or to list different types of species. After we returned from lunch we were given a set of sample data points to put into the Lincoln-Peterson Index. This index is an equation used to estimate population in a specific set of conditions, including a population that is closed, and every animal is equally catchable. This equation involves multiplying the number of individuals caught in the first and second trapping together, and then dividing it by the number that were recaptured. We were unable to use our own data for this part, as we did not tag any of the animals previously, and therefore did not know which were recaptured.

We then did a more general activity that involved measuring diversity. The main ideas that we needed to learn in this module were as follows; Alpha Diversity/Species Richness is the number of species in an area/community, Species Evenness is how abundant each species is compared to each other (it is greatest if all species are equal), Gamma Diversity is the number of species across multiple communities/ecosystems, and Beta Diversity is the Gamma Diversity divided by the Alpha Diversity. We first explored this through doing calculations involving theoretical species across three mountains in three different regions. We then did this again in the form of an experiment involving beans. We were given a number of beans to count and sort (530 in my case), and were told to sort them by "species" or type of bean. Once we were done with this we step-by-step performed the calculations of the Shannon Diversity Index for each species of bean, eventually taking the sum of all of them and multiplying it by negative one. This index is made to give a score that represents both the amount of species richness but also the amount of species evenness in one score. The higher the score is, the more rich and even the population is. I compared my population with my partner's and found that I had a greater amount of diversity and evenness than him, as my score of 1.56 was greater than his of 1.38. To end the class we played a fun game that involved picking beans out of buckets of rice on a time limit to simulate the risk/reward system of scavenging for food.

7/20 CAMPING/SARANAC LAKE TRIP

On this date we first visited Saranac Lake and its farmers market. Me and a group of friends were able to buy some delicious produce, along with other fun items such as a DVD, a field guide, Mustard themed socks, and lots of syrup. My favorite location that we found was a Loon Conservation Center, which served as both a scientific center and a museum of sorts. I got Chinese food before I left and it was delicious.

After this we hiked in from the road to a lean to and bench area where we camped out for the night.

7/21 WILDLIFE TECHNIQUES

Equipment: Yagi Antenna, Telemetry Tracking Collars

This Wildlife Techniques module was taught to us by Wildlife Technician Lindsay Brogan in room 115 of the Freer Hall of Science. It was largely about the work that she had done as a Wildlife Technician so far. She began by stating the groups that the Adirondack animals fit under when they are being studied. These include the Fur-Bearers, Diversity, Big Game and Waterfowl. The diversity group is the more general group that includes the small mammals, the herpetofauna, and grouse, among others. She began with the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) on a temporary waterfowl job that she explained to us. She explained that she had worked with Cormorants in cold water survival suits, and she put corn oil on their eggs to make sure that they did not hatch. She eventually ended up getting a job as a big game technician, which was the subject of most of her later stories. She prefaced her stories by explaining to us the various ways to trap/immobilize animals so that one can deal with them (ie for tagging). There are kill traps, meant to kill the animals such as a mouse trap, or a neck snare. There are also live traps, such as the Sherman traps that we used for the small mammals module, or a Havahart trap. We watched a video depicting one of the many nets that she taught about in motion. In this video it showed a rocket net catching many ducks. Chemical Immobilization was the final type that she mentioned, but with these processes you have to make sure that the chemicals have no tissue reaction, a short induction, and are reversible. She broke down the various large game and why they would need to be handled. Deer would be handled with damage permits and disease testing, bear would be dealt with for nuisance work and to give them collars/tags to track them. Moose would be handled for disease, to gauge their population status. The next part of her presentation was about her Moose Project, Telemetry. In this project she put tracking collars on many moose to look at the population mortality. We were the taught about the many incidents involving bears that happen around the New York area. She showed us how to set up bear traps using molasses and donuts, and told us that if the Bear held any threat to people then it would be euthanized. 

After this we went out to the Paul Smith's ropes course to use the yagis (portable antenna) to locate collars that were set on stuffed animals. Even though my group was unable to find ours, possibly due to faulty equipment, or our inexperience in the field, it was still a fun experience.

7/22-23 ENTOMOLOGY

Equipment: D-Net, Sieve, White tray, Ice Cube tray, Water Bottle, Forceps, Bee Bowls

In this module we were taught by Dr. Janet Mihuc about entomology. We did two different experiments relating to bugs; bee bowls, and a survey of benthic invertebrates. The first experiment that we set up was the bee bowl experiment. We set out for this experiment with a set of Fifteen bowls, evenly split among three colors; yellow, white and blue. We also had a measuring tape to space the bowls three feet apart, and water with a drop of soap to fill the cups with. The purpose of the drop of soap in the water was to decrease the surface tension of the water so that the insects could not just land on top, they would fall in and die. We were split into groups of three to four and each group placed the bowls in different areas. There were groups in varying stages of mowing, from fresh mow to no mow. We let these bee bowls sit and continued to the Hays Brook for our next module.

At our next module, in which we would capture benthic (the bottom of a body of water) invertebrates (animals without a spine including bugs and mollusks). We went to the Hays Brook and set off onto catching our invertebrates. We were told that to get the best results we should go after different microhabitats, i.e. a location where the water is running very fast, or a muddy area, or a location with slow moving water pools. My partner and I used the strategy of stepping into the mud and stirring it up to be able to catch much of it in our "D" net. Each time we would bring up the net we would deposit it into a white bin. Later, we poured the contents of our white bin through a sieve, leaving us with only the substrate and the invertebrates to bring back to campus.

At campus we were now able to analyze the data that we collected. First, we did the invertebrates. We slowly put samples of the dirt/sand substance into a white bin, and used tweezers and water to spread it out and look for invertebrates. When we would find animals we would put them into the individual cells of ice cube trays, eventually combining all animals of the same species into one cell. In the end we found a very large amount of aquatic worms, with fourteen, which was the largest in our sample and in our class as a whole. Ms. Janet said that this could be attributed to the fact that we scooped a large amount of mud instead of just water and biofilm, as mud is where many of the aquatic worms live. We found large amounts of Caddisfly and "true fly"/Diptera larvae as well. Once we cleaned the materials that we had used for the invertebrates and put the invertebrates in an alcohol solution, we harvested the bee bowls and brought them back to the classroom. After sifting through my seventy-one total insects, I found that I had two Bees and one Wasp. Surprisingly, there were no honey bees, as in where i'm from they are the most common bee to see. I also had the greatest number of Bees in my group, suggesting that the color yellow attracted more animals total. This proved similar in all of the other groups as well as just under half of all the insects were harvested from yellow bowls. While the number of insects was greater in the recent mow area, (116 insects, the lowest was 61) the relative abundance of Bees did not change much at all, as it was from ten percent to twelve percent.

later, in the VIC, we had an afternoon activity that combined both our entomology module and our ornithology module. The ornithology portion will be summarized in the ornithology section, but the entomology part was very fun. After we had returned to the VIC we could observe that the light that had been left out attracted many moths and other attracted animals. It was amazing to see the great diversity of moths, with their different shapes, sizes and colors. We were also able to see adult Dobsonflies, as opposed to seeing the larvae in the earlier exercise. Finally we were able to see adult Longhorn Beetles, though we were not able to get close as they could bite.

FISHES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS

Equipment: Minnow Traps, Fyke Net, Cat Food, Bucket/Pool to place Fish

This was a two day module taught by Ellen George. On the first day we set both the minnow and fyke traps in two different points. We set the minnow trap in the reeds off of the point, while we set the fyke trap off of the canoe dock. The two minnow traps had Heart to Tail cat food, one had a beef flavor, the other had a salmon flavor, and we split into teams to choose who would win. 

The next morning, in Freer hall, we learned about the morphology of fish. Similarly to the ornithology module, we were asked what a fish was, and we provided characteristics such as cold blood, scales, and a skeleton, but overall, each of these characteristics had an exception. This taught us that the designation of fish was very general, and no one item signifies a fish. After learning the various parts of the fish, such as the adipose and caudal fin, or the vent, we moved on to different types of features. We learned the types of mouths, such as the superior (up facing) mouth, and what they did, which in this case was eating things above them. We then learned the body shapes, which were fusiform (Brook Trout), laterally compressed/dorsally compressed, and elongated (any Eel), as well as color patterns which were silver, cryptic, disruptive, and having an eyespot. The functions were also provided, such as the long distance swimming of fusiform fish, or the sparkling schooling patterns of silver fish. The types of caudal fins, other fins, and other special features and their uses were also provided.

We visited the minnow traps first, and unfortunately my team of the beef entree caught no fish. On the other hand, the minnow trap with salmon entree caught six minnows, all Pumpkinseed. Using the measuring board we measured all six, recording their height in millimeters and abbreviating their name to PKS. In the fyke net we caught a much larger range of larger fish. We caught six different types of fish overall. The fish species we caught were Golden Shiner, Yellow Perch, Pumpkinseed, Rock Bass, Black Crappie and a Northern Pike. We measured all of these as well, with the largest coming being the Northern Pike at 570 mm.

Once we arrived back in the lab we did more interactive activities. We were given five fish, and told to identify all of them using a dichotomous key and a field guide. Unfortunately the field guide was outdated and provided outdated scientific and common names. Overall we identified a Cisco, a Rainbow Smelt, a Chinook Salmon, an Alewife and a Sea Lamprey. Finally we did a fun activity in which we made our own fish. While other people used parts of other fish, I used another classmate's suggestion of making a "shell-fish" and made a literal fish that lived in a shell similarly to a snail.

AQUATICS

Equipment: Secchi Disc, Water Sampling Container, Microscope

In this module we were taught aquatics and limnology by Kayleen Snyder. Overall I felt that this was the most intense module physically as I had not canoed in a very long time, and we had to canoe into the wind. First, after getting in our canoe and almost capsizing we made it to the middle of the lake. Due to the large amount of wind it was difficult to get a reading, but we used a Secchi disc to measure the water transparency. We did this by lowering this disc, which was on a tape measure, into the lake and seeing at which point could we no longer see the disc. We did this measurement again at another part of the lake called Spitfire, which was far more shallow and had a larger amount of vegetation. Fortunately the wind was in our favor and the journey back was far easier, though by the end I was completely exhausted. Other people also got samples of the lake water to use later.

Once we arrived back in Freer, after lunch, we learned more about the lake overall. Lakes in general experience most of their changes due to three factors, precipitation, overland flow, and groundwater. She also taught us about the special properties of water, which were its good specific heat, viscosity, heat capacity, and surface tension, as well as its ability to float on water. We learned about the water stratification in which the lake is split into different layers with different characteristics including differing amounts of dissolved oxygen and different temperatures. These stratifications happen in both the summer and winter in which the hottest and coldest water moves to the top respectively. During the spring and fall the temperature throughout the water is much more uniform, including a in the spring in which much of the water mixes. After this we looked at the previously recorded water samples under microscopes. We found some very nice examples of phyto/zooplankton in our samples across the class. I found an unidentified large insect larva, as well as a Stephanodiscus, while other people in this class found examples of rotifers, copepods and cladocerans. As the last thing that we did in this module, we graphed both the amount of Oxygen found and different meters, and the visibility, and found that there was a distinct divide between the upper and lower waters.

Going into this program, I had never done a college-related course before and I did not know what to expect. I had also never learned about field ecology before, and I was not sure how interested in it I really was. This program was able to break the large topic of field ecology into all of the factors that influence it, whether it be the water, the animals, the plants, or the soil. This breakdown made it a lot easier to handle and to enjoy. In this two week period I was able to learn more than just educational topics as well, I learned how to get to know people better, and how to be a better collaborator. I had assumed that this would be a strictly educational program, with much of the learning being hands off. Even after seeing other people's storymaps I had concerns, but this ended up being very much focused on the experiences that came with these certain fields. I believe these uncommon things that we as students were able to experience here, such as meeting the Canada Jays, has had a huge influence on me, and the rest of us as students, and may even lead us to pursue one of these paths in the future.