by 
7-17-16
We immediately dove into core samples after breakfast, but some of us got to do some carpentry work with Joe Montoya’s experiment. When we got back, there were smear samples and mud in the microscopes. Stephen and Kaatje had us trying to figure out why the core samples had changes in colors and sediment types. We also started to work on our projects today, or at least get an idea of what we want to do. Some groups have already started putting data together while others (me) have only just found a suitable topic.
Our next experiment was about density, and water can change its density based on things like temperature and salinity. My partner and I did great on the first half where we proved that warm water was less dense than cold water, but we had trouble with the next part where we had to prove that salt water was denser than freshwater. The cool thing was that everyone had different methods of proving their hypothesis, like one group used a funnel, another used buoyancy, we dyed an ice cube blue and watched the cold dyed water sink.
I went outside at some point before dinner because we were very close to Florida, so much in fact that I could see the buildings. While i was out there, I saw a bunch of flying fish, and a mom and baby dolphin pair, swimming in the wake of the boat. This was a first for me and I’m glad I was able to witness it. We also watched a storm visibly growing and then rain on West Palm Beach. The night ended with the waves coming in stronger and a group of us playing Uno. And yes, I did win a game.
We’ll be in the Gulf by tomorrow so stay tuned in!!
~Dagny
