June 22, 2014
Today started out with another
delicious breakfast of eggs, beans, ham and rice. Later in the morning, the first and second
years split into groups and worked on their studies. The first years learned how to excavate
leaf-cutter nests. Next, they
transferred the fungus gardens to sterilized containers in order to better
observe them. In the afternoon, the whole
group set off for a horseback ride. For
two hours, we rode through the rainforest, up muddy slopes and through
spectacular vines. At one point, we
stopped in a clearing far up in the hills – we could view the whole valley from
our high perch. The cloud-shrouded
volcanic peaks in the distance towered over us.
We could even pick out the Finca La Anita dining hall’s red roof far in
the distance. After the long ride, everybody
was sore. Part of the group stopped in
town to watch the end of the US vs. Portugal soccer game. The rest of the group jumped in the pond for
a refreshing swim. The day finished off
with a scrumptious dinner and dessert of
fried plantains with cacao nibs – mmm!~~~~~Alex
Second year update by Caroline and Brynn........ Today the second year students each developed a research question and hypothesis for their project. Topics of interest ranged from studying virus and bacteria genomes to the metagenomes of soil samples. We each created a couple of powerpoint slides to present our research ideas to each other. We had a projector to show the slides, but we had to make a makeshift screen to project them on by stapling a white bed sheet to the wall of the porch. We shared our ideas with the group and gave each other feedback. Gabriel gave us a short lecture about isolating DNA and how genome sequencing machines work. Fun fact: in the last ten years, the cost of sequencing 10 million base pairs has dropped from 10K to less than 10 cents. After working for a few hours in the morning, we joined the first year students in the afternoon for the trail ride and soccer watching and/or swimming. Tomorrow we will get our projects underway and begin our data analysis!
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