Blog Credits: Aoife, Violet

The start of our last week on the Salish Sea began much earlier than normal. Spirits were rather low throughout breakfast–which was at 6:00 am–as everyone had to switch gears from a fun day out at Orcas to (surprise surprise) science!! Despite this, sacrificing a few hours of sleep in order to catch the low tide was worth it, as most students were able to collect organisms and/or begin the data collection phase of their projects.

We regrouped around 12:00 back at the dorms where some people continued to work in the lab, and others worked on getting back the hours they lost this morning with a mid-day nap. An hour later, we headed into the art room to meet with Augie Kalytiak-Davis, a PhD student at Oregon State University who studies sea stars at the Friday Harbor Labs. He instructed us on how to properly incorporate statistics into our research projects. He also introduced us to the program “R” which is a tool commonly used by marine scientists.

After our chat with Augie, project time resumed and we once again went off on our individual pursuits. Some people spent time with their organisms, and others resumed the hunt for specimens.

After a fulfilling day of project time, we are excited to welcome Will Ballentine for dinner. He is co-teaching the invertebrate zoology class at Friday Harbor Labs this summer!