Costa Rica Day 6 (June 2, 2016)

Cameron and Jacob Smith authored this blog. Today, we worked all day in the field on our research projects.

Lily, Sarah, Joey, Sam, and Harrison researched the difference between the cultivable bacteria on the frogs and lizards by catching frogs and lizards and sampling them.

Peter, Olivia Bassetti, Michaela, and Shelby worked with ants and leaves trying to determine if there is a natural repellent for ants by collecting ants and experimenting on them.

 Ryan, Jacob Smith, Derek, and Jake Cedric researched different ant pheromones: alarm, colony, and trail; they experimented by using obstacles, ants from rival colonies, and the pheromones from other colonies.

Sara, Chase, Matt, and Patrick "Failed at digging up ant colonies, but don't worry they eventually got it... kind of,  (JK :))". Sara successfully prevented a forest fire.

Cameron, Eric, Jordan, and Scott started off by going off into the forest and collecting ants. Then we took the ants back to the laboratory and crushed ants based on their working class and put them on petri dishes.

Julie, Emma, Travis, and Anthony tested for BD (batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) in frogs by cutting the frogs' toes off and putting them under a microscope (the toes will grow back).

Olivia Simpson, Jacob Steel, and Jacob Romines tested fungi's affect on ants by encircling them in escovopsis fungi and seeing if the ants could pass the circle.

Conner, Mickie, CJ, and Edward tested the aggression of frogs in a lab by watching them jump around for hours, as Conner says.

Trinity and Lexington Catholic have really bonded over the past days as you can see by all four lunch tables having members of both school. It's been a great opportunity to meet new people in our state.