Day 27
June 29, 2013Today our tasks were:
1. Cleaning up and uploading our data
2. Filling our the questionnaire
3. Sharing photos/other data on the NAZ and dropbox
4.Pack up and get ready for our 2210 flight back to LAX.
Day 26
June 29, 2013A lot of people were on edge just waiting until it was our presentation time. I did approximately 4 to 5 full practices of my presentation landing at around 9 to 10 minutes 20 seconds. We got dress as professionally as we could and headed to Kualoa Ranch. Long story short, everyone gave their presentations to a good sized crowd of anthropology students, professors, graduate students and Kualoa staff. Many of them said we did great as a group concisely presenting our research. Afterwards we headed to a nice restaurant and got some small plates to share. When we got back to the ranch some people did some work and some people just needed to relax and have some downtime.
Day6/Week4
June 29, 2013Time to go back to the mainland. It’s going to be tough getting used to the fact that there won’t be a perfect beach right down the street. It’s also going to be sad leaving all of the friends that I have made from the program. After a quick (few hour) packing, we are going to have a few hours to roam around. Then it’s going to be non-stop until Monday night for me. I’ll be hopping on a train up to Union Station as soon as we fly back to LA, then I’ll be taking a Megabus up to San Jose, Caltrain up to Mountain View and then finally crashing in my new apartment… right before my first day of work.
It’s been a great program. I have learned so much about Hawai’i, the people, the culture, and the landscape. I am super happy about all of the software and instrumentation knowledge that I have gained. I hope that when I get back to Maryland I will still use all of what I have gained.
Thanks CSULB and NSF.
Cheers
Thanks
Mahalo
Sincerely
-Thomas
Day 26 & 27 – Last Days
June 29, 2013Yesterday was presentation day. We went to Kualoa Ranch, our research site host. Kualoa Ranch is a humongous property where the 2.7 square mile Ka’a’awa Valley is just a part of the property. On the other side of the valley is their headquarters where we would meet in the morning before heading into the valley where did our research. We met there yesterday at one of the facilities to give individual presentations on our research, 15 of us gave 10 minute presentations to an assorted audience of students, ranch staff and ownership, and community members. I was worried that we would all go over our time and bore the life out of the audience, but everyone did a really good job condensing our research into 10 minute chunks and I think the event went really well.
Here is my presentation: Mapping Vertical terrain – online
Here is my final paper: https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/geography/nsf-reu/wiki/2013-projects/greg-hosilyk/
After we gave our presentations, we gathered for a group photo and headed to dinner. That night, we blew off some steam at the barn.
NSF-REU 2013
Today, we’re cleaning, packing and heading to the airport. We have some time off in the afternoon before heading to the airport, but we can’t go too far, so we’ll probably just hang around here or go to the local beach. So, that’s it, back to my normal life, actually I can’t wait, I miss it.
Thanks for reading.
And now, the end is near…
June 29, 2013Presentations: done
Report: done.
It has been a pleasure to work with so many smart young individuals. I have learned a lot and feel that I have a new course to take in life. This is what this experience is meant to do, I suspect.
June 28, 2013
I just realized I haven’t blogged since Tuesday. The last few days have been a whirlwind getting my project finished, and making a presentation and a write up. My paper is up on the wiki-pages if anyone wants to read it. The last few days have been spent cleaning up the data we have and making a solid product. The presentation today was at the Kualoa Ranch. Some students from the archaeology field school came to see the speeches. I thought that everyone did an awesome job with their presentations. It was great seeing how all the projects came together cohesively in the end.
Tomorrow we are headed back to LAX!
Presentations!
June 28, 2013Today we sat around all morning practicing presentations, and gave the presentations at two o’clock at Kualoa Ranch and everything went very well, I really enjoyed sharing my research with others and seeing what others had done in detail. After almost three hours of these presentations, the generous professors took us out to eat at Haleiva Joe’s and we all had a delicious dinner! Following this we all headed back to the barn and I finished up my metadata and put all of my data on the NAS. I had so much fun on this trip and learned so much over the past four weeks. I can’t believe that a month has already passed by and it has been a great time living in the barn with 14 friends. I will always remember this trip and it has been such a great experience for me. I am extremely appreciative of what the professors, TAs, and the NSF have done on this trip to help my further my understanding of the research process and applications of geospatial technologies. I am so glad that I decided to apply for this program months ago and have had one of the best months of my life!
Day 26
June 28, 2013Today I added citations to my PowerPoint. Then I asked Dr. Wechsler for improvements on my presentation. Then I continued to practice my presentation. Three people presented before me, Peter, Howard, and Cole. While they were talking I continued to practice the one slide that I kept spending three to four minutes on so that I can reduce the time to one minute. When I actually presented, I forgot about any of the recommendations that Dr. Wechlser told me and I forgot to say a lot of things and ended up talking for 6-7 minutes instead of taking 11 minutes like when I was practicing. I was glad to finally be done with the presentations, but it was kind of intimidating to talk in front of so many people.
Afterwards, we all went to the Haleiwa Joe’s restaurant and I had a Luau Lumpia (?). The food was really good. I cannot believe that we are going back home and I will never be coming back to the barn or the Ka’a’awa Valley. I am happy that I will be able to go back to my home where there are no barn animals making noises and most importantly, not a lot of mosquitoes. However, I feel that I will miss being in the barn with everyone.
Day5/Week4
June 28, 2013PRESENTATION DAY.
There are 15 of us left. Plenty of food. Enough sleep. The only thing I have suffered was a broken hammock. Quite the opposite of a survival story.
I made my presentation this morning and have been rehearsing it since. With a few run throughs, one with a TA, I feel pretty prepared. Public speaking isn’t much of an issue for me, however I just want to make sure that people actually find interest in my subject matter and that my data is of any importance. I think it is.
I still have a bit of my conclusion to complete for my paper. I’ll finish that after a bit more rehearsal.
We are going to be presenting to the general public and the archaeology field school at the Koaloa ranch. Although there have been a lot of issues with this project, I am happy that I am finally able to bring it to a satisfying close. The presentations should be finished around 5 and then it’s back to the barn for blitz cleaning and packing. It’s hard to imagine that tomorrow evening we will all be back in Long Beach. Although many specifics of this trip seem like they were forever ago, like when we went to the north shore on our day off, overall I felt like I just got here. It’s going to be sad leaving all of the friends that I’ve made here. Sad face.
Day4/Week4
June 28, 2013Second day of crunch time. Besides a quick run to the beach, I was in the barn all day and late into the night. There was another scare that our LevelLogger data wasn’t calibrated… again. With introduction, methodology, and results sections completed, I had little time to blog.
My next steps will include inserting figures and adding captions, finishing the remaining sections, rechecking my metadata.
Time to go!
*written on the 28th but taken from brief writing on the night of the 27th*