On-Campus Event: Late Blog Penalty

Hello,

As I write this, it is the Friday before Finals Week and I couldn't be happier that this semester is finally coming to an end. This semester has been a pretty difficult one for me, as is evidenced by the fact that I am waiting until now to complete my last two blogs. 

So, for my on-campus event I chose to attend my friend Colin's biology honors thesis presentation. Colin and I studied abroad in Mexico together during last summer. I knew that he was very busy this year because most of the time when we ran into each other, he was either coming from or going to the laboratory. For a double humanities major, it is sometimes hard to realize there is this whole other area on campus where they do experiments and write lab reports...ick. 

Colin's honors thesis was over the reproduction habits of pomacea insularum, or the apple snail. From what I could gather during the presentation, he was studying their reproductive habits in order to evaluate their potential as an invasive species. Not only was his presentation informational and enjoyable, but he also took his project a bit farther by using the shape of the snails' shells (logarithmic spiral) as a metaphor for their reproductivity, which delighted me because metaphors are something that humanities majors DO understand. He used the shape to show how rapidly the snails could expand in number, even though many of the snails never make it to adulthood. Then he showed the potential implications this has for the snails to be an extremely invasive species.

His experiments were mainly focused on what type of surface the snails prefer to lay their eggs. He tested many surfaces, including the two different kinds of natural plant surfaces where their eggs have been seen, wooden rods of varying shape (i.e. cylindrical, rectangular) and some metal rods, also of various shape. All of his surfaces were of different length in order to examine the issue from all different angles. If I remember correctly, the snails didn't lay any of their eggs on the metal surface and their was a wide distribution on the plant and wooden surfaces. Also, I don't think there was a height preference displayed by the placement of the egg shoots. He told us a story about one of his excursions to collect a plant species on which the snails could lay their eggs. On this particular occasion, he had to travel to Houston to collect the plant and upon seeing a pond with the species growing around it, they stopped and asked a homeowner if they could go through her backyard to access the pond. Once they were collecting their specimens, Colin saw the plants near him rustle as if something was moving through them. Once he let his eyes scan to the area, he saw an alligator moving towards him in the water. He was standing in muck wearing golashes and while trying to get out of the muck and to safety, he had to leave one of his boots behind in the muck. From then on, one person was collecting specimens and the other was on alligator watch.

It's been a fun (and busy) semester. Ready for summer!

Catch ya on the flipside,

Brady

March 10th Reading Blog

Hello everybody (aka Dr. G),

I wasn't able to attend the first half of the March 10 meeting as I was attending a mandatory study abroad session. I am completing this blog over the assigned readings for the day in order to offset my absence. I hope that this blog post finds you well. I know that writing it suited me as I was laying on my bed in my house, taking a couple days of rest before finals week.

I'm not a big fan of reading the transcripts of dialogues, which is one reason why I like the style of the piece, "Is the Welfare of Disadvantaged Children Improving?" Rather than presenting the issue with the two people engaged in a dialogue, it merely presents the writings of each side. My stylistic preferences aside, I thought the sides were distinct and each side was represented by a more-than-capable person. I would have to say that I don't think the welfare of disadvantaged children is improving, but not for the same reasons as Bennett. I don't think it is the decline of the traditional family or some type of moral confusion that is hampering improvement in the disadvantaged children's welfare. I think that the problem lies with failed policies that haven't addressed the issues that need to be addressed, not in some arbitrary measurement of moral stability.

I read an article a while back that talked about how rich people are more likely to be healthy and fit than those who are not rich. This surprises me none in the least, especially when looking at the prices of the healthier fresh foods. There are many other reasons that Gary W. Evans', "The Environment of Childhood Poverty," identifies some of these as: increased chance of exposure to violence and an increased presence of television programs instead of books or computers. This all seems to stem from their status as disadvantaged children. Most parents of these children do not have time to engage in learning with their child, as many of them are merely concerned with putting food on the table.

I'm not sure how well the class conversation went for these first two articles, but the third article ("Is Spanking Detrimental to Kids?") had its discussion pushed back to the next meeting, at which I was present. Our entire cohort engaged in the conversation, each one of us defending our ideas. I liked this activity because it got a lot of the class talking and it helped give our group a more group-ey feel, rather than being a basic three-man show.

I was spanked as a child and every school I have ever attended has practiced corporal punishment, so I can see both sides of this argument. One the one hand, spanking does seem to have a negative effect of the psyche of a child. One the other hand, it seems to stop the behavior immediately. I really feel that a child's development depends more on their own discoveries and through talking with a parent than it does on pain enforcement. 

Sincerely,

Brady