I have never had a job that I sat in a windowless room working on the computer for hours at a time; fortunately, I love numbers and results. (not to mention, I have a quirky group to share the office with)
We started this week off choosing the locations for data collection along the boulder canyon and using GeoContext.org, google earth and excel to find the slopes for each of those locations. In order to come up with a broad conclusion, I created five slopes per location and am currently working on an average slope and standard deviation. This data will allow us to plug in the size distribution of the boulders along the creek to see if there is a relationship between the two. Our independent factor will be the steepness of the valley and our dependent (hopefully with a visible relationship) will be the size of the rocks we find.
Due to the amazing amount of water flowing through the canyon at the moment, we will probably work on getting this part of the project done well and wait until the water lowers a little. So, in the mean time, I am going to become an excel-pro!!!
See you all tomorrow!
Mo
Mo, I had 3 meetings (2 of them phone conferences with folks across the country) yesterday in a windowless room. That’s part of our work as scientists and science educators. Fortunately, the 4th meeting we had outside at our picnic tables on a lovely day. Really appreciated that last meeting!