Day 4: Afternoon: Drilling Our Core.

Adding a New (Holocene) Layer to our Sea Floor Model.


Our Core


'Drilling Our Core'


Next we did a core drilling experiment and agreed to believe that this represented the core we had headed to the Chatham Rise to drill on board The Aumoana. Ms Gain had created a sea floor model that had different layers, made up of cake slices and coloured playdough. Some of us took turns to add/deposit some new, recent layers to our sea floor to help us understand that the top layers in a core are the newest. We then used a long plastic tube to 'drill' a core sample. When the tube was lifted out we could see the different layers of our core. We talked about how the deepest layers of a core are the oldest and the top layers are the newest. We then looked at the Geological Time Scale and talked about how geologists can describe the different time periods the different layers are from. For example a layer of a core that is dated to 160 million years ago (done by testing fossils found in the layer) can be described as coming from the Jurassic period. The most recent material deposited on the sea floor today is described as being in the Holocene period. Some of our group has been researching how cores can tell us stories about the past, including the story of the KT boundary. In cores that have been drilled around the world there is a common layer of ash, which has been dated to 65 million years ago. This layer of ash, which seems to have covered the earth's surface, is thought to be evidence of an asteroid that hit the earth in the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago. It is thought that this event led to the extinction of dinosaurs, and in fact many creatures. There are many fossils found in layers below this ash layer that are not found above it.

Day 4: Mid Morning: Diary Writing

Next we imagined that we were on another scientific venture on board our research vessel The Aumoana. In contrast to our last imagined trip, this trip so far had been smooth sailing. We imagined that this venture was to the Chatham Rise Region where the team had planned to drill a core. There were now experts in our group who could tell us some details about the Chatham Rise and show us the area on a map of the sea floor. Ms Gain gave us the longitude and latitude co-ordinates of where we were heading to drill our core and we all had a go at marking this on a map. This was something new for all of us and a good challenge!

We went and sat in our own spaces on the field to help us get into role for this writing. It was a beautiful day and the flat green field became our sea! For this diary entry we tried to include sea life that we might see on the boat and details of the science work we would be doing. After our writing we shared our favourite sentences to each other as a group. Here is some writing from our diary entries.

'It is a beautiful morning and I am very pleased to say that we are launching our drill pipe tomorrow, very exciting. I hope we find lots of fossils. Our boat has already fished up lot of plankton, silverfish, and phytoplankton […] The best thing about living on a boat is the sunrise. There are no hills in sight so around 7 o’clock the sun goes down and reflects on the water. It is the most wonderful sight in the world, it is awesome'. Mia W.

'Another beautiful morning on the Aumoana. A pod of dolphins are passing us as I write. I named one Splash and another Cloudy. The boat is surrounded by crystal clear waters but the wind is still strong when I’m out on deck. I’ve just seen a pesky seagull eating someone lunch but I left him to it because he was so skinny. He came back for my lunch but that time I didn’t leave him to it! […] The stillness of the water goes blood red from the sunset. The sunrise is just as good!' Sally

'It is just morning and I am the only one up. All of the others are asleep apart from me. It is so quiet being the only one up and I just saw a big whale squirt water out of its spout.' Lucy

'I left Wellington 2 days ago and I am just about at the Chatham Rise to drill a core…I can see no hills so the sun goes down by the water. The colour of the sun is kind of orange and red mixed'. Tom

'Tomorrow I’m going to be in the lab all day. We counted fish and plankton yesterday. Tomorrow we will be measuring things […] We wear warm clothes like overalls and woollen hats.' Zoe

'There is an albatross flying around the boat and a blue whale chasing some krill that we want to catch for our science. Tomorrow we are going to drill a core, which I am excited about.' Mia P.

'The sunrise is amazing. I smell seaweed pulling up the nets, it is hard work.' Julius

'It’s lovely weather. Not there yet. Been doing lots of sampling, which is fun, but I miss my family. I’ve been on the deck lots.' Rosa

'Sunny days, great food, fun games, and amazing discoveries. The weather is great. Last night I saw a shooting star. The boat is quite rocky but I don’t mind.' Tim

'It is a very hot day today. I have been sampling very hard and I am very tired, we have been on our boat for two days.' Samantha

'It’s warmish its about 12 degrees and pretty sunny too […] When we put our clothes on we have to put on lots of layers.' Robbie

'Very smelly because of all that plankton I’ve been allowed to spray my room with perfume because it’s so smelly.' Georgia

Day 4: The Morning: Researching and Poster Design Work

Today we got stuck straight into researching for our foyer display project. In our teams we continued to find answers to our research questions. We also started to think about how we were going to put our information on our posters. We started to think of some good attention grabbing titles and headings for our poster. In our research teams we had to decide how many headings we were going to have on our poster to show our research clearly. We started to think about what diagrams, images, photos, and pictures we would like to include on our poster. We have also had to start thinking about how we are going to record the references of where we have got our information from. We have all chosen different programs for publishing our posters including Comic Life, Keynote, and Word.

Day Three: The Afternoon

The team on the trawling deck working in cold and wet weather conditions.


Max feeling unwell at sea


Georgia feeling unwell at sea.

In the afternoon we used drama to step into the shoes of scientists who have been working on a research vessel that has been in stormy weather for a few days. We imagined putting on our warm gear for working on the boat and made a freeze frame of the team working on the trawling deck in cold and wet weather. When we were shoulder tapped by Ms Gain we spoke aloud thoughts that may have been running through our heads as we worked in these conditions.

We then imagined that we were sitting in our cabins after a rough day working at sea and spoke aloud a thought that came to us as we took off our heavy boots to get ready for bed.

Finally we imagined we were sitting in our cabins after a few more rough days working at sea writing in our diaries. Here are some highlights from this writing:

“still at sea, worst of all my trips. Wish I was at home. I have had a bucket through half the trip….hot egg or porridge for breakfast, though my plate or bowl keeps on sliding off the table, luckily they are plastic….sea is really rough, frost bites are horrible…” Georgia.

“The wind is whipping the sea up into small tornados that are crashing against the boat wildly. I’m sitting here in a puffed up jacket with warm clothes on but it isn’t working very well. It’s been too choppy to lower the net into the freezing blue….my lips are blue and my knees are wobbling, its like I can’t stand up.” Sally

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it, it has been so so hard. I really want to come home” Helena.

“It has been great working on the sea but I miss my family so terribly” Mia W.

“I really miss my family. Every dinner has been lamb stew. The weather is really bad and the beds are hard. I like my job but I really don’t like being in a storm” Rosa

“Horrible weather. Blizard. Horrible working so hard.” Max

“I have been working 12 hours a day and there’s been a big storm. I saw thunder for the first time in my life…We wear these really heavy boots everyday and woolly hats and really big jackets” Robbie

“The weather is terrible. I don’t know how to eat very well when the boat rocks like that. The work is very hard, nearly impossible to do” Tim

“Life is horrible so far on the boat. I want to go home and order some pizza and chinese food to get me going. I’ve been feeling sick and tired…It was so cold some people got frost on their noses and eyebrows” Julius.

“I feel sick…I wish I was in my bed. My feet and face are so cold” Zoe

“The boat is rocking madly, which I like, but it is hard working 12 hours a day. I’m missing my family heaps.” Mia P.

“It is very rocky…I have to work for 12 hours every day. I wonder if my husband and children are okay. I am very cold. I’ve got lots of amazing photos of the sea.” Samantha.

“I’ve been working pulling up the nets and I caught tonnes of silverfish. The boat was ricking wildly. I felt freezing and I nearly slipped” Tom.

“It has been really hard because it is so rocky. I really like my job but it is really hard when it is so rocky…I hope my mother is not finding it hard looking after my children” Lucy.

Day Three: The Morning

Today we started with a team meeting. We received an email from Sarah in management responding to our concerns from the last meeting. Everything has been organised to allow us to focus on our new project of designing an informative foyer for our NZ COSSA building. We have been given extensions on our current research deadlines and a budget for equipment and materials we may need, even Georgia’s trip to France is being re-scheduled!

After our morning meeting we quickly settled to finding answers to our research questions that we wrote last week. The projects we are working on in our groups include:
• Phytoplankton and zooplankton in Antarctic waters,
• The decline of silverfish in Antarctic waters,
• Sea floor geography around New Zealand,
• Ocean currents and temperatures in the waters around New Zealand, and
• Reading cores to find out what lies beneath the sea floor.

We have been looking at maps, websites, research articles, photos, newspaper clippings, and books to find answers to our questions. We are starting to become real experts! We have been highlighting, note taking, and questioning as we go, and explaining and sharing our new knowledge with the team. We have been learning to decide on which research questions are the most useful and relevant to our topic, create headings to take notes under, and put things we read and understand into our own words. Today we worked individually, in small groups, and as a whole team.

Day Two: Activity 4: Organising and Planning for the Project

Out of role we then assigned six different projects that were mentioned in the email to groups of team members. In these groups we read outlines of the projects and wrote some key research questions. We also discussed why we need research questions.

“We need to know what to look for”
Sally

We then began exploring our fictional website, deciding on which links were going to be the most useful starting point for the different projects. As we read we wrote questions we wanted to ask to help us understand what we were reading, and made notes of words, terms, and types of equipment we were unsure of and needed to find out more about.

We also considered how much time we would need to complete the project. We decided on three days with 4 x 45 minute blocks of time available each day. We made project plans in our groups about how many blocks of time we would be likely to spend on the different aspects of the project, which had to include research time, writing time, poster design time, making a clay model to go with the display, and using drama to present the information in an interesting and interactive way. Our plans are flexible but will help guide us and make sure we cover everything. We have time sheets to record what we do in each block as we go.

Next week we will be ready to begin our projects, armed with our own research questions, an idea of where to start looking for some answers, a project plan, and time sheets to help us keep on track. We are going to be busy, Sarah from management will be visiting us at the end of three weeks to see our displays and they will have to be of a high standard!

Day Two: Activity 3: Getting A Commission

Ms Gain, in role as our team leader Gina, shared an email from Sarah in NZ COSSA management asking the team to consider a new project to redesign the foyer of the NZ COSSA building. The aims of the project were outlined as:

• To make an informative and attractive display about some current research projects, being done on the research vessel The Aumoana, in order to attract more public interest in the work we do.

• To support schools wanting to teach children about science in the waters around New Zealand.

• To help convince funding authorities to continue supporting our work.


As we read through our email from management some of us opened up keynote on the laptops and wrote down some concerns about taking on such a big project. On newsprint others recorded what the key criteria for the foyer displays were. As a team we discussed our concerns, including money to pay for the display and having time to do our own research. In the end however, we decided as a group that it was important that we do this project because people should know about the science work we do and we need to get funding to keep our jobs.

“we need to do this because what would happen to our wives and kids….we’d have no job!”
Louis

This is the email we wrote back to Sarah:

Kia Ora Sarah,

The team has discussed doing the project. We are supportive of the idea but we have some concerns.

We are going to need a budget to pay for equipment. We are also concerned about having time to do our reserach as well. We may have to get an extension on some of our current research deadlines. Georgia may have to re-schedule her trip to France, do you think it would be okay if she went next month instead?

Max has agreed to look at some figures for the budget.

Could you please get back to us for our next meeting about whether you can help us with these things. In the meantime we will start to plan towards starting the project.

Cheers.
Gina and the team.