Link to Blog
http://rxstowers.blogspot.com/
Crime Scene Analysis
The crime scene analysis project was a creative way to explain DNA testing, and give a real life demonstration how to Solve a crime. There were three different types of crime scenes. I got crime scene #1 which was started by call to the police that the victim had killed himself. I then inspected the crime scene taking photos and documenting the evidence. I then did Super glue fuming to make latent finger prints, DNA sampling. I then had figured out the conclusion from the crime based off of the Evidence that was shown from the Finger print testing and DNA testing to figure out who the culprit of the crime was.
My favorite part of this project was the Creativity that went into the crime labs. To create an entire crime with fingerprints, DNA, and a crime scene that needed to be investigated was very cool. It was like an actual CSI episode, but we actually had to do the paperwork. The Project was very cool.
The only flaw with the project was the time management. I actually finished my entire project the day of exhibition, which for me was not very fun and it made the investigation just fall apart because of the short amount of time we had to do it. If i were to do this project again, i would have given more time to finish the project.
But overall, I really liked the project, it was very creative and a great idea.
My favorite part of this project was the Creativity that went into the crime labs. To create an entire crime with fingerprints, DNA, and a crime scene that needed to be investigated was very cool. It was like an actual CSI episode, but we actually had to do the paperwork. The Project was very cool.
The only flaw with the project was the time management. I actually finished my entire project the day of exhibition, which for me was not very fun and it made the investigation just fall apart because of the short amount of time we had to do it. If i were to do this project again, i would have given more time to finish the project.
But overall, I really liked the project, it was very creative and a great idea.
Date: 4/23/2013 CSI Name(s): Thayer Stowers Crime #: 1 Type of Evidence: Separation of DNA Date when Evidence was collected: 4/15/13 Specific location where evidence was collected: DNA samples from Scott, Michelle, Aaron, and blood obtained from the sink of Scott's hotel room. And actually not michelle. Summary of how the evidence was processed and analyzed:The first step in the analysis of the DNA collected from the sink of Scott Henderson's hotel room was isolation. This was achieved by introducing a lysis buffer, or a material that breaks down the phospholipid bilayer of the cell (in this case, dish soap and positively charged salt), to the DNA. Chilled rubbing alcohol was then introduced to the solution to extract the DNA from the solution. The extracted DNA was then amplified through Polyamerase Chain Reaction (PCR), in which the segment of DNA was replicated through the use of DNA polyamerase, which copied the DNA before it separated, and nucleotides which attached to the newly "unzipped" DNA. The final step in the DNA processing was electrophoresis, which uses electricity to separate DNA molecules. A banding pattern is created because DNA has a Negative charge. By adding a negative charge to the far end of the Electrophoresis chamber, the DNA is drawn towards the positive charge. Different size molecules, travel at different velocities. Smaller molecules will travel faster and larger molecules will move slower. Each individual has a specific DNA banning pattern. This enables the comparison of DNA samples and can be used to determine the culprit of the crime. The banding pattern made by the DNA collected as evidence from Scott Henderson's hotel room was a match for the banding pattern produced by the victim, Aaron Lee. What conclusions can be drawn from this piece of evidence? Scott Henderson came into contact with the blood of the victim, Aaron Lee. What questions, if any, are raised by this piece of evidence? Is he guilty of the crime? Is he covering for someone else?
Human-Bear Conflict
Management Plan:
Habituation
1. Bear proof trash cans.
A. Details
The most important way to reduce human bear conflicts is to keep garbage away from bears. Unsecured landfills and commercial and residential garbage bins attract bears. Once a bear gets a taste of human garbage, it will routinely approach communities and other developed areas in search of food. In order to keep people, all public, residential and commercial waste containers in a bear infested area, must be bear-proofed.
· The goal is to prevent the bears from getting into the trash.
· Preventing the bears from getting into the trash cans will be taken care by the City of Durango and the National Forest Service.
· In order to prevent the bears from getting into the trash cans, the current trash cans and dumpsters will have to be replaced with bear proof trash cans.
· The cost of each bear proof dumpster estimates close to $1000 dollars and each individual trashcan estimates to about $210 dollars each.
· The city will sell the current trashcans to towns that are not bear infested in order to pay for the bear proof trash cans.
· The rest of the money will be paid by Division of Wildlife.
· Once all the trash cans and dumpsters are replaced in the Durango area, a survey will take place to get a total of how many bears have been spotted in the current year compared to the year before.
· This survey will then show if the new trash cans have lowered the amount of bear’s incidence in Durango.
B. Benefits
· Bear-proof trashcan mandates have proven effective in other cities such as***
C. Cons
· The Cost to replace the current trashcans with bear proof trash cans is very expensive.
· Once the bear proof trash cans replace the current trash cans, it leaves the bears from a food source which leads to the bears getting violent and breaking into houses in search of food.
2. Aversive Conditioning
Aversive conditioning (AC) is an operant technique that uses a negative stimulus to cause pain, avoidance, or irritation in an animal engaged in an unwanted behavior. In the case of bears, if AC is successful, bears will learn to associate humans, human food, and human developments with the negative stimulus and avoid them.
A. Details
· This plan’s goal is to force the bears out of residential areas.
· This will be taken care of by the National Forest Service and Animal Control.
· If a bear is spotted in a residential area the National Forrest Service and animal will come to the location that the bear was spotted.
· Aversive conditioning treatments will include chasing (without dogs); 3 projectiles of varying impact intensity:
· Rock-throwing, slingshots, rubber slugs, and pepper spray.
· When bears do obtain human food, projectiles or chasing can drive them from the area.
· The main utility of AC with these bears is to modify unacceptable behaviors to those deemed acceptable for human safety.
· Keep the bears out of developed areas long enough to install bear-proof facilities
· Keep females with cubs out of developed areas so the cubs do not learn nuisance behaviors from their mother.
· Cubs will be a priority in order to prevent cubs from learning nuisance behavior.
B. Benefits
· Aversive conditioning can prevent nuisance behaviors in many wild bears if it keeps them away from developed areas.
· This will allow bears access without putting humans at risk of encounters, injuries, or property damage, and without putting bears at risk of habituating to humans or receiving a food reward.
C. Cons
· Aversive conditioning, like lethal removal, will not be an effective management strategy if human food remains in the area.
· In areas where bears require access to critical habitats, the best management option may be to seasonally exclude humans, rather than bears.
3. Water Restoration
There is not enough rain to grow the barriers and nuts in the forest which leaves the bears to go out and search for food. When they can’t get their natural food, the bears go to the next best thing, Peoples trash. When the bears get accustom to the people leaving their trash out, the bears rely on that as a source of food. Once people notice that the bears are getting into the trash they make sure the bears can’t access their trash. This is an issue because the bears need food and when they can’t get it, they become violent and will do anything to get food. This includes breaking into houses and destroying anything until they can get to food. And when this happens the bears usually won’t leave which leads to them getting shot and killed. In order for the bears to stay away from residential areas, they need their own food to stay in the wilderness.
A. Details
· In order for the bear’s natural food to be plentiful, there has to be rain to give the amount of moisture for the plants to produce enough food.
· During the last couple years, the average amount of rain per year in Durango has been 21 inches within 94 days.
· To provide enough moisture for the plants to produce food, the Durango Fire Department will Drop water over a bear populated area to give enough moisture for the plants to produce food.
· This will take place during a drought has taken place.
· When more and more bears are being cited in residential areas.
· This plan will be successful when the plants start to produce enough food that the bears can get enough food to live off of for the rest of the year.
B. Benefits
· This plan focuses on the improvement of natural habitats and encouraging natural hunting and foraging behaviors.
· The National Forest Service will not have to keep spending money to take care of scaring bears away from populated areas.
C. Cons
· There won’t be enough moisture to produce enough food, so the bears will still search for food in trashcans, which leads to the bears going into residential areas in search for a food source.
Biology Project Reflection
During the course of this project I have studied a conflict that I haven’t ever had any knowledge on. After getting assigned the human bear conflict, for 3 weeks, I had studied my topic to get a full understanding of what I was learning about. From there I wrote a management plan trying to solve the issue. This was the main concern of the project that I had spent the majority of my time on. Then I was told to create a poster to give a visual example of our project. Then we exhibited our projects to the public, showing them what we have been working on for the last month.
During the writing of my management plan I had written three strategies, bear proofing the trashcans, aversive conditioning, and water restoration. Out of all three of the ideas, I think that bear proofing the trash cans was the most realistic for a town like Durango. I say this because the issue is that ears are going into residential areas in search for food, once they find the food the look to that house as a liable food source and they will keep going back, and then the people will take their trash away, the bears will become violent and will break into the homes to get food. The benefits about bear proofing the trash cans are that the bears won’t ever look to that house as a liable food source.
The skills that I have learned during this project is objective Technical writing, use of excel, research skills, finding and reading scholarly articles, and intex citations. I learned about how bears are used for in ecology. I learned that bears are Predators, Scavengers, and seed producers, which I didn’t know about before the start of this project. I really didn’t have any other thoughts after this project. I had already known that the bears getting into trash were bad, and all the project did was take the topic into more depth.
Habituation
1. Bear proof trash cans.
A. Details
The most important way to reduce human bear conflicts is to keep garbage away from bears. Unsecured landfills and commercial and residential garbage bins attract bears. Once a bear gets a taste of human garbage, it will routinely approach communities and other developed areas in search of food. In order to keep people, all public, residential and commercial waste containers in a bear infested area, must be bear-proofed.
· The goal is to prevent the bears from getting into the trash.
· Preventing the bears from getting into the trash cans will be taken care by the City of Durango and the National Forest Service.
· In order to prevent the bears from getting into the trash cans, the current trash cans and dumpsters will have to be replaced with bear proof trash cans.
· The cost of each bear proof dumpster estimates close to $1000 dollars and each individual trashcan estimates to about $210 dollars each.
· The city will sell the current trashcans to towns that are not bear infested in order to pay for the bear proof trash cans.
· The rest of the money will be paid by Division of Wildlife.
· Once all the trash cans and dumpsters are replaced in the Durango area, a survey will take place to get a total of how many bears have been spotted in the current year compared to the year before.
· This survey will then show if the new trash cans have lowered the amount of bear’s incidence in Durango.
B. Benefits
· Bear-proof trashcan mandates have proven effective in other cities such as***
C. Cons
· The Cost to replace the current trashcans with bear proof trash cans is very expensive.
· Once the bear proof trash cans replace the current trash cans, it leaves the bears from a food source which leads to the bears getting violent and breaking into houses in search of food.
2. Aversive Conditioning
Aversive conditioning (AC) is an operant technique that uses a negative stimulus to cause pain, avoidance, or irritation in an animal engaged in an unwanted behavior. In the case of bears, if AC is successful, bears will learn to associate humans, human food, and human developments with the negative stimulus and avoid them.
A. Details
· This plan’s goal is to force the bears out of residential areas.
· This will be taken care of by the National Forest Service and Animal Control.
· If a bear is spotted in a residential area the National Forrest Service and animal will come to the location that the bear was spotted.
· Aversive conditioning treatments will include chasing (without dogs); 3 projectiles of varying impact intensity:
· Rock-throwing, slingshots, rubber slugs, and pepper spray.
· When bears do obtain human food, projectiles or chasing can drive them from the area.
· The main utility of AC with these bears is to modify unacceptable behaviors to those deemed acceptable for human safety.
· Keep the bears out of developed areas long enough to install bear-proof facilities
· Keep females with cubs out of developed areas so the cubs do not learn nuisance behaviors from their mother.
· Cubs will be a priority in order to prevent cubs from learning nuisance behavior.
B. Benefits
· Aversive conditioning can prevent nuisance behaviors in many wild bears if it keeps them away from developed areas.
· This will allow bears access without putting humans at risk of encounters, injuries, or property damage, and without putting bears at risk of habituating to humans or receiving a food reward.
C. Cons
· Aversive conditioning, like lethal removal, will not be an effective management strategy if human food remains in the area.
· In areas where bears require access to critical habitats, the best management option may be to seasonally exclude humans, rather than bears.
3. Water Restoration
There is not enough rain to grow the barriers and nuts in the forest which leaves the bears to go out and search for food. When they can’t get their natural food, the bears go to the next best thing, Peoples trash. When the bears get accustom to the people leaving their trash out, the bears rely on that as a source of food. Once people notice that the bears are getting into the trash they make sure the bears can’t access their trash. This is an issue because the bears need food and when they can’t get it, they become violent and will do anything to get food. This includes breaking into houses and destroying anything until they can get to food. And when this happens the bears usually won’t leave which leads to them getting shot and killed. In order for the bears to stay away from residential areas, they need their own food to stay in the wilderness.
A. Details
· In order for the bear’s natural food to be plentiful, there has to be rain to give the amount of moisture for the plants to produce enough food.
· During the last couple years, the average amount of rain per year in Durango has been 21 inches within 94 days.
· To provide enough moisture for the plants to produce food, the Durango Fire Department will Drop water over a bear populated area to give enough moisture for the plants to produce food.
· This will take place during a drought has taken place.
· When more and more bears are being cited in residential areas.
· This plan will be successful when the plants start to produce enough food that the bears can get enough food to live off of for the rest of the year.
B. Benefits
· This plan focuses on the improvement of natural habitats and encouraging natural hunting and foraging behaviors.
· The National Forest Service will not have to keep spending money to take care of scaring bears away from populated areas.
C. Cons
· There won’t be enough moisture to produce enough food, so the bears will still search for food in trashcans, which leads to the bears going into residential areas in search for a food source.
Biology Project Reflection
During the course of this project I have studied a conflict that I haven’t ever had any knowledge on. After getting assigned the human bear conflict, for 3 weeks, I had studied my topic to get a full understanding of what I was learning about. From there I wrote a management plan trying to solve the issue. This was the main concern of the project that I had spent the majority of my time on. Then I was told to create a poster to give a visual example of our project. Then we exhibited our projects to the public, showing them what we have been working on for the last month.
During the writing of my management plan I had written three strategies, bear proofing the trashcans, aversive conditioning, and water restoration. Out of all three of the ideas, I think that bear proofing the trash cans was the most realistic for a town like Durango. I say this because the issue is that ears are going into residential areas in search for food, once they find the food the look to that house as a liable food source and they will keep going back, and then the people will take their trash away, the bears will become violent and will break into the homes to get food. The benefits about bear proofing the trash cans are that the bears won’t ever look to that house as a liable food source.
The skills that I have learned during this project is objective Technical writing, use of excel, research skills, finding and reading scholarly articles, and intex citations. I learned about how bears are used for in ecology. I learned that bears are Predators, Scavengers, and seed producers, which I didn’t know about before the start of this project. I really didn’t have any other thoughts after this project. I had already known that the bears getting into trash were bad, and all the project did was take the topic into more depth.
DNS
Thayer R. Stowers
Amphibian population estimates and ecosystem assessment on the Durango Nature Studies property
Introduction
Durango nature studies have been providing nature education throughout the four corners since1994. They teach students, adults, and families, not just from Durango but from over. Having a small staff and a group of dedicated volunteers, interns and contractors, DNS is able to serve 6,000 people every year. The DNS property is located near Durango, Colorado, near the New Mexico border. This property has many different habitats, including oak woodlands, desert arroyos, the Florida River, pinion junipers, and meadows. DNS has a total of 140 acres. The upper 35 acres of the sight is for the public. A footpath takes visitors down to 105 acres along the Florida River, there trails wander through a wide variety of habitats.
Currently in Colorado, the bullfrogs, (Bufo Boreas) are considered an invasive species. An invasive species is a species that damage crops, industries, the environment and public health. Leaders of industry believe that invasive species are one of the most environmental threats of the 21st century. An invasive species is defined by the executive order as a species that is a non-native to the ecosystem under consideration whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. The blue gill (Lepomis Macrochirus) is an invasive species of fish that feed on the eggs of leopard frogs (Rana Pipiens). Bullfrogs do the same thing by eating the leopard frog’s eggs and compete with the leopard frog for food, but both of these invasive species will affect the leopard frog in a bad way. The leopard frog is put under watch by the division of wildlife. Do to the result of Bull frogs and the Blue gill fish that have been eating the leopard frog eggs.
Natural History
The leopard frog, like many different frog species, embryonic development is temperature dependant, and can be delayed due to cold weather. The eggs hatch between 13-20 days, and the tadpoles grow from 60-80 days after hatching. The northern leopard frog is considered to be an indicator of high quality. Through Excessive collection for the scientific supply market has also contributed to the decline of northern leopard frog in Canada and the United .States, and 'massive, continent-wide die-offs were reported in the 1970’s and 80’s. So the leopard frogs have been depleting for a very long time.
The bullfrog goes through several life stages. An adult female frog will lay 20,000 even up to 25,000 eggs at one time. Also the eggs hatch within three to five days. American bullfrogs live longer in warm weather. They have been widely introduced across North America (see range map). The original, naturally determined range did not include the far western regions where it is found today.
Methods & Materials
The methods and materials that were used were 4 pitiful traps that were checked daily, visual encounter surveys were conducted around the pond each day for four days, 1 one hour marking session was conducted around the pond each day for 4 day, 4 to 5 gallon pitfalls, and one mark session using pink elastomer. We had used these methods in order to estimate amphibian population’s id the DNS pond and Florida River.
Water samples were taken from the Florida River and DNS pond to test water chemistry for Nitrates, Phosphates, Dissolved Oxygen, and pH. For plat diversity 4 random Veg Plot Surveys were conducted, and another test was to estimate amphibian’s populations. Macro invertebrates were collected in the river using a kick method, and in the pond using a dip net.
Results
The results that were concluded were that the phosphate levels were low, the nitrate and dissolved oxygen levels were high, and the pH levels were at a base line. The leopard frogs were captured and marked during the first session. During the second session, only one frog was recaptured and four frogs were captured without any marks. The equation that was used was P=MC/R. P is the total population, M is the number of frogs caught during the first section, C is the number frogs caught during the Second session, and R is the number of frogs recaptured during the second session. Using this equation, could conclude that the number of leopard frogs all together was a total of 15 Frogs. Only one bullfrog was spotted during the time that was spent at DNS, concluding that there is only one bullfrog in the DNS pond. The diversity index from last year was 0.99. last year the damsel fly was the most populated macro invertebrate in the DNS pond. This year the diversity index was a total of 1.21. This is telling me that the pollution in the pond had risen up a lot during the last year. The Florida River also had a raise in pollution over the last year, making the a unlivable habitat for some macro invertebrates.
Conclusion & Discussion
Through a collection of data, the data concludes that the leopard frogs are not getting taken out by the bullfrogs. Sense the leopard frogs are the native species, the bullfrog is not effecting the population of leopard frogs in the DNS pond.
It can be concluded that the water quality in the Florida River and the DNS pond sais that the pH levels were Alkaline (A Base) are considered to be damaging to the Ecosystem. The nitrate levels were high in the river and the pond. The Phosphate levels in the pond and river were both low. The nitrate levels might be high because the coli form had tested positive, which could give an explanation for the high nitrate levels. The pond is at risk for an algal bloom due to the high nitrate levels. The only way to prevent this is for the nitrate levels to drop down very low.
A different procedure that could be used to collect data would be to take a more accurate Water Quality test that can show a more accurate conclusion. I think that the teacher should take the tests rather than the students, because the students don’t have any idea on what they are doing, and doing it in the last five minutes probably isn’t the most accurate way to collect data. The strategies that were used to catch frogs could be changed. The students in the water should be coordinated enough to catch a frog, and the people outside of the water shouldn’t try to move the frogs from the grass to the water, the strategic why to capture the frogs should be to slowly walk along the shoreline and spot out the frogs that are sitting on the shoreline.
Bibliography
http://www.durangonaturestudies.org/
http://www.smm.org/warnernaturecenter/animals/leopardfrog
Amphibian population estimates and ecosystem assessment on the Durango Nature Studies property
Introduction
Durango nature studies have been providing nature education throughout the four corners since1994. They teach students, adults, and families, not just from Durango but from over. Having a small staff and a group of dedicated volunteers, interns and contractors, DNS is able to serve 6,000 people every year. The DNS property is located near Durango, Colorado, near the New Mexico border. This property has many different habitats, including oak woodlands, desert arroyos, the Florida River, pinion junipers, and meadows. DNS has a total of 140 acres. The upper 35 acres of the sight is for the public. A footpath takes visitors down to 105 acres along the Florida River, there trails wander through a wide variety of habitats.
Currently in Colorado, the bullfrogs, (Bufo Boreas) are considered an invasive species. An invasive species is a species that damage crops, industries, the environment and public health. Leaders of industry believe that invasive species are one of the most environmental threats of the 21st century. An invasive species is defined by the executive order as a species that is a non-native to the ecosystem under consideration whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. The blue gill (Lepomis Macrochirus) is an invasive species of fish that feed on the eggs of leopard frogs (Rana Pipiens). Bullfrogs do the same thing by eating the leopard frog’s eggs and compete with the leopard frog for food, but both of these invasive species will affect the leopard frog in a bad way. The leopard frog is put under watch by the division of wildlife. Do to the result of Bull frogs and the Blue gill fish that have been eating the leopard frog eggs.
Natural History
The leopard frog, like many different frog species, embryonic development is temperature dependant, and can be delayed due to cold weather. The eggs hatch between 13-20 days, and the tadpoles grow from 60-80 days after hatching. The northern leopard frog is considered to be an indicator of high quality. Through Excessive collection for the scientific supply market has also contributed to the decline of northern leopard frog in Canada and the United .States, and 'massive, continent-wide die-offs were reported in the 1970’s and 80’s. So the leopard frogs have been depleting for a very long time.
The bullfrog goes through several life stages. An adult female frog will lay 20,000 even up to 25,000 eggs at one time. Also the eggs hatch within three to five days. American bullfrogs live longer in warm weather. They have been widely introduced across North America (see range map). The original, naturally determined range did not include the far western regions where it is found today.
Methods & Materials
The methods and materials that were used were 4 pitiful traps that were checked daily, visual encounter surveys were conducted around the pond each day for four days, 1 one hour marking session was conducted around the pond each day for 4 day, 4 to 5 gallon pitfalls, and one mark session using pink elastomer. We had used these methods in order to estimate amphibian population’s id the DNS pond and Florida River.
Water samples were taken from the Florida River and DNS pond to test water chemistry for Nitrates, Phosphates, Dissolved Oxygen, and pH. For plat diversity 4 random Veg Plot Surveys were conducted, and another test was to estimate amphibian’s populations. Macro invertebrates were collected in the river using a kick method, and in the pond using a dip net.
Results
The results that were concluded were that the phosphate levels were low, the nitrate and dissolved oxygen levels were high, and the pH levels were at a base line. The leopard frogs were captured and marked during the first session. During the second session, only one frog was recaptured and four frogs were captured without any marks. The equation that was used was P=MC/R. P is the total population, M is the number of frogs caught during the first section, C is the number frogs caught during the Second session, and R is the number of frogs recaptured during the second session. Using this equation, could conclude that the number of leopard frogs all together was a total of 15 Frogs. Only one bullfrog was spotted during the time that was spent at DNS, concluding that there is only one bullfrog in the DNS pond. The diversity index from last year was 0.99. last year the damsel fly was the most populated macro invertebrate in the DNS pond. This year the diversity index was a total of 1.21. This is telling me that the pollution in the pond had risen up a lot during the last year. The Florida River also had a raise in pollution over the last year, making the a unlivable habitat for some macro invertebrates.
Conclusion & Discussion
Through a collection of data, the data concludes that the leopard frogs are not getting taken out by the bullfrogs. Sense the leopard frogs are the native species, the bullfrog is not effecting the population of leopard frogs in the DNS pond.
It can be concluded that the water quality in the Florida River and the DNS pond sais that the pH levels were Alkaline (A Base) are considered to be damaging to the Ecosystem. The nitrate levels were high in the river and the pond. The Phosphate levels in the pond and river were both low. The nitrate levels might be high because the coli form had tested positive, which could give an explanation for the high nitrate levels. The pond is at risk for an algal bloom due to the high nitrate levels. The only way to prevent this is for the nitrate levels to drop down very low.
A different procedure that could be used to collect data would be to take a more accurate Water Quality test that can show a more accurate conclusion. I think that the teacher should take the tests rather than the students, because the students don’t have any idea on what they are doing, and doing it in the last five minutes probably isn’t the most accurate way to collect data. The strategies that were used to catch frogs could be changed. The students in the water should be coordinated enough to catch a frog, and the people outside of the water shouldn’t try to move the frogs from the grass to the water, the strategic why to capture the frogs should be to slowly walk along the shoreline and spot out the frogs that are sitting on the shoreline.
Bibliography
http://www.durangonaturestudies.org/
http://www.smm.org/warnernaturecenter/animals/leopardfrog