Fiddler Crabs

Introduction             The hypothesis tested during this longitudinal study of the  Uca minax  fiddler crab species at Spermaceti Cove on Sandy Hook, New Jersey is as follows:  The  Uca minax  fiddler crab species located at Spermaceti Cove on Sandy Hook, New Jersey will increase as the years go on. The null hypothesis for this study is as follows: There will be no difference in the  Uca minax  population at Spermaceti Cove on Sandy Hook, New Jersey over the years. The hypothesis was tested using the same method that was used in previous years in order to mitigate error and increase the accuracy of the study.             This longitudinal study is important, as fiddler crabs are an indicator species; there is a direct correlation between their population stability and the health of their habitat. Should their habitat be un...

What I've Done I presented my senior project on May 23. I believe it went really well. I spoke to a bunch of people and educated them about what a population assessment is and how I conducted my research, as well as what conclusions I drew from my statistical analysis. Plans for the Future I will finish my testing and results for the 1 June due date. I will also write my final paper and hand it in prior to the due date, so I don't have to worry about it. 

What I've Done I completed my final progress poster with the revisions Ms. McDonald said to make and emailed it to both her and Ms. V to be printed. Plans for Today I will not be in class today, as I have a field trip. Plans for the Future I will pick up my printed poster tomorrow morning. I will prepare for Senior Project Night, which is on 23 May.

Plans for Today I will meet with Ms. McDonald in class today and determine what needs to be fixed on my progress poster before I email it to be printed. Plans for the Future I will make the revisions on my progress poster Ms. McDonald has for me. I will then begin working on my testing and results (not due until 1 June).

What I've Done I finished my progress poster & emailed it to Ms. McDonald to see if I needed to make any adjustments. Plans for Today I will not be in class all week, so I will wait for Ms. McDonald to reply to my email & then make the revisions at home. Plans for the Future I will make the revisions on my progress poster Ms. McDonald has for me. I will then begin working on my testing and results (not due until 1 June).

What I've Done I asked Ms. McDonald if there were any revisions I needed to make for my final paper. She said it was as good as it is going to get, so I submitted my final paper to her. Plans for Today I will finish my progress post and email it to Ms. McDonald to see if she has any adjustments that I should make to it. Plans for the Future I will make the revisions on my progress poster Ms. McDonald has for me. I will then begin working on my testing and results (not due until 1 June).

Plans for Today I asked Ms. Mcdonald if she has looked over my paper for adjustments. I will make those adjustments and then continue with my progress poster. I will hand in my final paper to Ms. McDonald. Plans for the Future I will work on my progress poster.

What I've Done I made revisions. Plans for Today I have not seen Ms. McDonald since my last log entry, so I will begin working on my final progress poster. Plans for the Future I ask Ms. McDonald if she has looked over my paper for adjustments. I will make those adjustments and then continue with my progress poster.

What I've Done I made many revisions based on what Mrs. Zrada told me. Plans for Today I will continue to make revisions and ask Ms. McDonald if she has any revisions for me to make. Plans for the Future I will make more final revisions. After I am sure my paper is complete, I will begin my final progress poster.

What I've Done I added my works cited to my final paper and made sure all in-text citations were correct. I made sure all of the figure numbers throughout my final paper coincide with the actual figures I'm talking about. Plans for Today I will print out my paper, fully revised to the best of my ability, and hand it into Ms. McDonald to see if there's anything I should change. I will also email it to Mrs. Zrada, so that she can look over the statistical portions of the paper. Plans for the Future I will make more final revisions, contingent upon what Mrs. Zrada and Ms. McDonald say to fix.

What I've Done I have added a screenshot of Sandy Hook from Google Earth to show the general location of Spermaceti Cove. I added GPS coordinates into my paper. I added in more graphs and tables. Plans for Today I will add my works cited to my final paper. Since I added more figures into the paper, I will go through and make sure all figure numbers align with the figure they are referencing. Plans for the Future I will make more final revisions to my paper and ask Ms. McDonald to revise it.

What I've Done I have updated my calendar with my new due dates and assignments. Plans for Today I will add my works cited to my final paper. I will also add a screenshot of Sandy Hook from Google Earth to show the general location of where the experiment took place. I will add the GPS coordinates into my paper. Lastly, I plan to add in more graphs and tables. Plans for the Future I will begin working on my marking period four work and making my poster.

What I've Done I received the packet for the marking period four work. I have not yet gotten the due dates. Plans for Today I will devise a plan for how to complete all of my assignments for this marking period. I will also begin to bullet point what needs to go on my final poster for senior project night. Plans for the Future I will begin working on my marking period four work and making my poster.

What goes on it: Design Briefs Abstract Hypotheses Ecological information All statistics used Include bar graphs & tables used Include results here Introduction Background Information Pictures of fiddler crabs Pictures of Spermaceti Cove Materials & Methods Discussion Acknowledgements Works Cited Power point dimensions: 24x36 16 or 18 point font paragraphs 24 or 36 point font for titles

Plans for Today I plan to assemble my paper. Due to the fact that I had my AP Literature final yesterday during this period, no progress has been made. Plans for the Future I will begin working on my marking period four work once I receive the syllabus for the quarter.

Contact with Mrs. Zrada Date of contact:  April 9, 2018 Contact:  Mrs. Zrada Reference:  Results and Discussion Discussion:  I emailed Mrs. Zrada my results and discussion portions of my paper and asked her to look it over for any revisions and errors. Conclusion:  Mrs. Zrada gave me replacements for the verbs I used to sound more professional. She also told me to include a graph in my discussion when talking about the slightly positive correlation between the temperature of the counting session in Celsius and the amount of fiddler crabs counted. She mentioned I should explicitly state what was calculated with a t-test and my null and regular hypothesis. Lastly, she told me I should continue my paragraph about limitations and add more to it.

Abstract This project is a longitudinal study of the Uca minax fiddler crab species at Spermaceti Cove on Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The purpose of this study is to determine the status of the population, whether or not it is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable. This has been done by repeating the same method over the past years, and will continue to be repeated in future years. Fiddler crabs are counted at Spermaceti Cove during full and new moon phases at low tides during late spring to early fall, the species' breeding season. After conducting statistical analysis of the quantitative data collected over the years, it shows that the population is remaining stable. As this is a longitudinal study, as more years of data are procured, different conclusions may be drawn by comparing all of the sets of data to each other.   Results A correlation between the temperature of the counting day in Celsius and the amount of Uca minax fiddler crabs counted on both sides of Sper...

What I've Done I presented my formal progress update for the third marking period. I also began my discussion yesterday and emailed both my discussion and results portion of my scientific research paper to my mentor, Mrs. Zrada, to be revised. Plans for Today I plan to use Mrs. Zrada's corrections to tweak my results and discussion sections to be more accurate and professional-sounding. After I make the necessary corrections, I will hand in my abstract, results, and discussion, as they are all due today, 10 April. Plans for the Future I will begin working on my marking period four work once I receive the syllabus for the quarter.

Discussion A correlation between the temperature of the counting days in Celsius and the amount of fiddler crabs counted on both sides of Spermaceti Cove exposed a direct relationship between these two variables; as temperature increases, there should be an increased amount of fiddler crabs spotted (see Figure 1).  Figure 1: Above is a table of the date the crabs were counted, with the amount of crabs counted and the temperature in Celsius. It is shown that a higher temperature also yields a higher amount of fiddler crabs counted the majority of the time. The results of this longitudinal study were not as predicted. The t-test provided evidence that the null hypothesis of this experiment cannot be disproven. This voids the hypothesis stating that the fiddler crab population at Spermaceti Cove would increase as the years go on. The population of Uca minax  fiddler crabs at Spermaceti Cove on Sandy Hook, New Jersey shows no significant change over the years. The data colle...

Acknowledgments   Thank you to Ms. McDonald for mentoring the scientific process for this experiment and the writing of the scientific research paper. Thank you to Mrs. Zrada for mentoring the statistical analysis of the data collected.