It's Over but read all of the blogs by clicking on the names...

http://www.earthwatch.org/site/pp.asp?c=dsJSK6PFJnH&b=1594389

You can all of the pages!

Day 8

After my cup of tea I'm off to the airport.

We switched hotels
http://www.lepavillon.com/
and I SLEPT!

See you in Maine.

Day 7

Last day!

We had a talk by Dr. Lee Dyer this morning.

He showed us slides of the different caterpillar families. After the talk, we went to the bug room to catalog some moths... then we had our last conference call via adobe connect. It went very well! Wow! progress!

The week is over and I am sad... ready to go home, but sad. It was a great experience to come down here... see some science in action, see for myself the Katrina devastation, and see the amazing city of New Orleans.

Day 7 is it?

Yesterday I started by skyping a sixth grade class in Florida. Those kids knew their stuff! Great questions!

We had some downpours yesterday. The roads flood very easily here, as the ground is already so saturated.

I spent yesterday dissecting caterpillars. The scientist I worked for was looking to see how the caterpillars immune system internally fought off the parasitoid eggs. She injected red glass beads into a caterpillar, waited 24 hours and then put them to sleep. Under a GORGEOUS dissection microscope, they were opened up and the beads were extracted ( yes, manually. Then the beads are photographed by a computer hooked into the microscope. A machine will then determine to what extent the eggs were "attacked". Very cool, BUT HARD. I think the biggest thing I have learned down here is that science is HARD work. Experiments require HUGE amounts of data and collecting that data is tedious, precise, repetitive work that can take years and years.

Working under the microscope with little beads takes a steady hand, patience and practice... none of the things I have! I got a lot better but still it was frustrating. Frustrations turn into successes though and I did very good work. I didn't do many caterpillars, but the ones I did do were my BEST WORK.

Last night we ate at a Turkish restaurant. The food down here is amazing. We went out to hear some gypsy jazz music...interesting.

Today is our last day, and we will be doing out last "broadcasting" from 11-12. I plan on touring a bit more this afternoon... trying to find some gator to bring home to my kids. I'm staying in a hotel downtown tonight for a change.

See you in Maine!

Day 6

Oh busy day!

I started today at the lab skyping my class back in Winslow. For those of you who do not know, remember the cartoon the Jetsons? They had a TV/phone where you could see the person you were talking to and vice-versa? That is skype. SO my students could see me and I could see them... unfortunately, because I can't seem to sleep down here. My roommate thinks maybe the room is haunted... so my appearance is lacking... oh I'll blame in on the pixels...

Back to science.
We went out to Honey Island Swamp today in search of caterpillars! We first had to don our boots... tall rubber boots that were supposed to ward off snakes and chiggers. Now back in Maine we don't have chiggers, but from what I hear about them we don't want to. We had to wear long sleeves and plants and hats and lots of DEET. I walked through the forest with a machete. We found the tree that we were to have for our focal point and measured a 5 m radius out from it. That was our plot. We first looked for caterpillars visually and then used sticks to beat the trees to dislodge the caterpillars. They fall into our awaiting beater sheets. Then a plant inventory is done to estimate type and amount of caterpillar food.

Our result? We found 15 caterpillars. They are now living in the "bag" room here at Tulane. We put them in ziplok baggies stuffed full of the plant they were eating.
They will keep them here until they emerge as a moth or until a parasitoid pops out leaving the dead caterpillar.

The swamp was dry, but interesting. We saw two snakes and three alligators as well as a great white heron. ( and a lot of spiders).

The snake was a 4-5 foot King snake. We are not sure of the other... he was a little but fiesty!
Last night we ate at a restaurant with local fare. I did not try the alligator cheesecake but did have some fried green tomatoes. Yum.

We made our way down to Bourbon Street last night to listen to some live/free music
that was supposed to be in the outside park, but downpours stopped that.
It really poured here last night. Wow.

My camera and computer are fighting so I can't get any pictures downloaded, but Melanie Dubose is posting some (of me) on her blog.

Your assignment for Wed.

If you don't have New Orleans work to finish...

I'd like you to start the assignment... what would I see if I rode from New Orleans back to Maine and stopped every 150 miles (approx.)? Where would I be? What would I see? Use Mapquest to chart the route.

Day 5? TEACHER TUBE

OOPS!

The local restaurant wil be tonight, not last.

Today we are going out into the field.

If you haven't viewed my videos, go to teachertube.com and search new orleans and look for sfarnham. I have 5 more to post, but they are large and take a long time so they might not get on this morning.

For my classes today... what have you guys been doing? From my emails, it looks like it took two days to get the Marie and Bug assignment done? Thanks to those who emailed. I think I have now heard from all of my classes.

Please bring your computers home this weekend and check my posts. Do you have any questions? email me or post them.

Day 4

Day 4
Last night we had Thai food. Yum. Almost as good as the Asian Cafe.

We worked hard today! I started my day working with Tara. Tara is setting up an experiment to look at two types of trees in three different environments. She is trying to see the effect varying the nutrients has on the tree's natural defense mechanisms. (Wow what a sentence.) So Noreen and I measured out specific amounts of phosphate, potassium, and nitrogen to be added to the trees. Then we went to the greenhouse (a greenhouse in New Orleans is VERY hot in the middle of the day!) and prepared 90 pots to plant the trees in.

After lunch we worked with Clark measuring the length of various Arthropods. You see, here at Tulane we are working with Dr. Lee Dyer's graduate students. They are all working on various projects related to Dr. Dyers work. You all know that Dr. Dyer is not a medical doctor right? He has a Phd. degree. That gives him the "Dr."
Why were we measuring the length of bugs? Well, if you have the average size of a bug, and know about how many bugs there are, you can get a good estimate of the total bug biomass. ( pounds of bugs!) Clark works with alfalfa crops ... trying to keep the pests out and the alfalfa in. There should be a video on this on Teacher Tube later.
When we finished our day in the lab, well OK I'll tell you. I went to the pool. It was mid80's and they have an outdoor pool here at Tulane University. It is a beautiful university if in 4 years any of you are considering going out of state. If you are into music this is the town for you... jazz, funk, lots. Has Ms. Buzy been to New Orleans?
Tonight we are supposed to be going out to dinner at a restaurant that serves "local" fare. Alligator?? We'll see.

Day 3

Hiya,

Day 3 started with a walk around Audubon Park. Very pretty with Spanish Moss on live Oaks, lots of birds...

Most of today was spent trying to video conference. We did get a tour of the lab and a briefing from Dr. Dyer.

Do YOU know the difference between a parasite and a parasitoid?

Tomorrow we have a full schedule in the lab. I will have a lot of SCIENCE to report back with then.

Meg Warren taped the conference calls and I will post how to get to them as soon as I hear from her. That can be in class for Tuesday.

Day 2

September 30, 2007
I got to sleep until 7 a.m. today. What a treat. After a breakfast at my hotel, I went out to catch the St. Charles Street bus into the French Quarter. It was recommended (by my class) that I take some tours so I decided on the cemetery tour. The bus took forever to come, so I sat on the curb outside of a lovely house. It was a pleasant morning, 80ish and muggy. The man who lives in the house let his dogs out ( in the fenced in yard) and then he turned on his sprinkler. The sprinkler reached out onto the sidewalk just feet from where I was sitting. I think he was trying to get rid of me!

Alas, the bus arrived and took me to the French Quarter. On the way down St. Charles I saw lots of trees that were covered in plastic Mardi Gras beads! I walked down Bourbon Street ( not a very nice street in my opinion, rather smelly at that hour). I met up with my tour guide and had a two hour walking tour. There’s a video link about some of the tombs below. She told about the early history of New Orleans, but I already knew all of that from the historian briefings! She told us that until the 20th century people died from many diseases associated with the location of New Orleans ( swampy). Yellow fever, malaria, and many many more. The cemetery was interesting.

After lunch, a lady (that I met on the tour) and I decided to drive into the 9th ward to investigate the damage. Wow. We saw where the Industrial Levee had breached in two places. The street closest to the levee had no houses. Just slabs of concrete remained where houses once stood. There were a few houses being rebuilt, but it was largely houses that were temporarily abandoned. I say temporarily abandoned because often there were spray painted messages on the houses “ Do not bulldoze, I’m coming home”. The houses had some symbols spray painted on them also. You can see them in my pictures. They checked all of the houses looking for bodies and ?? I’m not sure what else the symbols meant. I think they were checking to see if the gas and electricity were off. We drove by a senior high school that had been destroyed. I have a video and some pictures of that too. I went in through a hole in the fence and looked in a window. A table had a gas nozzle (like the one on my black lab table) and I knew it had been a science lab. Further down the road there was a ruined baseball field. If you look closely in one of my pictures you can see a mitt left in the wake of Katrina. Except for minimal rebuilding, it was almost total devastation in the 9th ward. The lady I toured with had a friend who ran an animal rescue operation in the 9th ward right after Katrina. While we worry about the people in a disaster, there are also pets who suffer.

In the evening, the five teachers on this Earthwatch Expedition met up with Rebecca, our liaison here at Tulane University. We went out to a Mediterranean restaurant for supper (yum) and then back to the hotel

September 29, 2007
Arrived at MSY airport on time. As we were flying in you could see houses in various states of repair (or disrepair). You could also see vacant lots. The airport, I learned, has those letters because it was built on an old slaughter yard, hence the SY. I decided to take a cab to the guesthouse even thought it was the most expensive option. It was also the easiest and boy did my suitcase weight a lot!

On walls and fences everywhere you can see a line where the water was in 2005(after the levees broke). The 9th ward, is still decimated. I’ll go see this later. We rode by the superdome and went on the overpasses that we saw in the video in class. (The overpasses where people were for days waiting to be rescued.)

St. Charles Street, where my guesthouse is, is beautiful. The streetcar that should run up St. Charles is not supposed to be fixed until next year. We are right next to Loyola College and Tulane University. My taxi driver said he’d take me out to hear some jazz tonight, but I opted to go have dinner with one of the other teachers who was here. We ended up eating at Cooter Browns .( As period 7 suggested.) I had my first po’ boy sandwich. Well, to me, it was just a sandwich, but it was named during the depression according to “Rob” from Baton Rouge who had come to town today for the big LSU - Tulane football game. (Yes, it was played at the Superdome). LSU won, but that really didn’t surprise anyone.
LSU is Louisiana State University. ( Remember I’m in Louisiana guys! :) So trivia- where is LSU? (Yes, I know Louisiana, but what city?)
It is HOT here. Well it is for a Mainer! It is just like it was last week in Maine. MUGGY! All of the trees are droopy and covered with moss/ferns. I’ll be posting a picture of some of the exciting night life I encountered tonight out on St. Charles street. Check it out.

Gabcast

I am having trouble imbedding Gabcast into my blog.
So if you go to gabcast.com and search sfarnham... listen to my recordings.

YOU HAVE YOUR ASSIGNMENTS!

Ok grade 8... you now have your assignments to help me with my Earthwatch Expedition.
Now here's a math problem for you to solve ... can you do it without Mrs. Stafford? I'll bet you can!

So what if global warming sends caterpillar populations soaring... will those horrible Tomato/Tobacco Hornworms leave us without one tomato here in Winslow, Maine?

(to look at pictures of the caterpillar and the moth look here...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_sexta)

Problem:
The life cycle of Manduca quinquemaculata, the Tomato Hornworm, is about 30 to 50 days. The sneaky moths lay their eggs at night. Each moth deposits one to five eggs per plant per visit and may lay up to 2000 eggs. (http://www.indiana.edu/~l113/ManducaSextaLab.htm) So if the Hornworm was active for 200 days of the year, how many caterpillars might result?
How many tomato plants would this involve? (maximum)? Whoa!

Something to think about...

Scroll down to the picture with this heading... check out the website.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1116_051116_caterpillar.html

Japanese Beetles

What are those little white dots on the thorax of this Japanese beetle?
What does it have to do with my Earthwatch Expedition to New Orleans, looking at caterpillars and their parasitoids?

Crawlers

Have you read Gregor the Overlander? I'm going searching for crawlers! OK, not in the bowels of New York City ... thankfully! You should start searching too. Go outside and look for caterpillars. How? Well, I know when my daughter has been in the kitchen because I see a half-eaten piece of bread here, some apple peelings there. Go outside and look for leaves with holes in them. Look under the leaves. At this point make a note of what colors and sizes of caterpillars you find. Can you identify them? I like a nice field guide but you could also check on websites such as enature.com. In Maine, I want you to also look at Japanese beetles. Collect a few. More on this later... The plot thickens...

From Maine to New Orleans...

OK, so in a month I will be traveling from Winslow, Maine to New Orleans, Louisiana. How many miles is that? What states will I be traveling through as my little scooter makes it way south? What roads should I take to take the shortest route there? If I stop every 150 miles what cities and states will I be near? What would I see there? Is it hot? cold? Is it near a Nascar race? a University? Do I see mountains? ocean? Use a program like MapQuest to answer these questions.

Getting ready...

It is the end of August and school starts next week. I have about a month to go before leaving for New Orleans. I'm excited about my Earthwatch fellowship. Thanks National Geographic! Speaking of National Geographic, have you checked out their website? Wow! 9www.nationalgeographic.com)
When I traveled to Cambodia last November, I realized many people just don't know their geography! Stay tuned.
(weather in Winslow, Maine- 70 degrees... cold for the end of August! Worried about people in the path of Hurricane Dean...