Daniel Carper and Andrew Box Describe Their Research Proposals and More Drone Footage
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Daniel Carper,
I am a part of the Three Toe Sloths and the pilot of the drone. this trip has been amazing and I have already learned so much. Today we started our projects that we will be working on for the next few days. My group decided on a project involving a type of spider found here in Costa Rica, the Golden Orb Spider. This spider produces a secretion that wards off ants. In my project with my group we are going to put that to the test. We have devised a way to test how effective the spiders secretion is by using an Atta (leaf cutter ants) colony, a spider, and food for the ants. In this experiment the colony will be placed at one end of the container divided into three parts in the first compartment. The spider will be placed in the second compartment, and the food will be placed in the third. This will force the ants to enter and pass through the spiders web to get to the food. This will test whether the spiders secretion is actually effective against the ants. This has taken us multiple designs and collaboration with the mentors here to develop our project to where it is now. Looking forward to working more with my group to put this to the test and dive deeper into the science behind it.
Andrew Box,
I am a part of a small group called The Unknowns, the people in this group is very nice and always on task. We have been working on what would happen if the soldier ants in each colony had no antennas. Would they notice thier fellow ants or would they fight other ants from different colonies? If you take off antennas, they are vulnerable because they don't have a sense of smell and don't realize that they are from different colonies. Our question / hypothesis is that the ants wouldn't fight from different colonies with no antennae.
The people here are so nice and we never see them argue. The people in the village are extremely nice and accepting of us. So far this trip has been amazing and I have made a lot of new frieneds. The science behind all this is amazing, even where the leaf cutter ants make antibiotics for themselves to survive. It is a great experience here and i just love it.
Around the farm at Finca La Anita
PDA doesn't stand for Public Display of Affection... it is potato dextrose agar.
The Do's and Don'ts of the lab.
Ibrahim working with students in the lab.
Three Toed Sloths at work with their fungus plates, just slowly.
A view from the lab. Students are working hard.
Michael and Maddie... part of team Costa Chicas.
Triston and Ellie describing their experiment.
Nick and Zach taking questions about their experimental design.
Daniel and his group presenting thier research proposal.
Tyler making ensalada con flores. Making tortillas. By: Zachary Santana Today we were wrapping up our research projects, finishing up our presentations, and finding the final result that are trials are showing based on the recorded data. The recorded data was based on the studies on Atta Cepholtes' behavior and activity in certain environments. Unlike most of the other days, today was closer to a full day of work. We had the normal breakfast time and lunch break was working in the morning because presentations are tomorrow morning. We did have a short cooking class today at 5:00 P.M. After the cooking class we had dinner which was the best one that I had out of any day here. The place that we went to was in the village of Colonia Libertad and to the restaurant was a fairly short walk. The trip in total was a great trip on which I learn many new facts about the leafcutter ant species. We are in a very nice place in Costa Rica and the species is very abundant. We have
This is Caelan and this is my experience horseback riding. Horseback riding, what a great way to start the day! At 6 am, half of us woke up to start the great adventure of riding horses through Costa Rica's amazing sites while the other half slept in to experince the wonders later in the day. At the beginning of the experince, I was really excited to get on the horse and take off. Later I found out that the ride was going to consist of a simple walk, at least that was what was planned. The ride went great but when you are riding a horse that loves to be in the front while you want to go slow and enjoy the sites, you tend to experience some conflict along the way. The ride went smoothly at the beginning but towards the end, my horse was getting slightly agitated. As soon as we could see the building where we had to stop, my horse decided that it was tired of staying behind the rest of the group, it took off! My first instict was to scream and try to slow the horse down by pulling ba
On this lovely day in Costa Rica ,we started our science reaserch. In the early morning birds were singing and woke all of us up. After our breakfast of eggs and fruit we took a tour on the chocolate farm. We got to try a cocoa drink with carillio cacoa with sugar and vanilla. There were also many other kinds of cocao treats. We learned about carillio and how the different qualities of chocolate are measured. Most industrial chocolate is more bitter and has more sugers and milk added. Every one we tried was great while also being healthy. Today we also go to take our first real trip into the rainforest. we took alot of great pictures. We were split in groups today and got to practice using the scientific methoid. We got to grow bacteria in agar in petri dishes. Later in the afternoon we watch two short films about the leafcutter ant and how they live, this wasa preview of the problem that we are going to be able to choose to study and solve. Trek through the rainforest Hike
Daniel - Eric Williams wants pics of all the bugs and spiders.
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