Sunflower

My sunflower seed sprouted about 4 weeks ago and grew to about 4" in height by the end of the semester.  I actually grew it in the cup holder of my car and gave it some water almost every day.  I drive to and from school each day, often eating breakfast and lunch on the way, so I always had water with me to give to the plant.  I was surprised by how well it grew in my car, but it did receive plenty of sunlight and water as well as a good half hour minimum of music each day...which may or may not have helped it grow.

Sunflower seed shortly after sprouting

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve is the "most common recent ancestor of all humans alive on Earth today with respect to matrilineal descent" (Source). Unlike other DNA, mitochondrial DNA is not combined with the DNA of the father.  Variations in this particular DNA stem directly from genetic mutations.  She is calculated to have lived in Africa 150,000-200,000 years ago (Source).

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2006/03/human-journey/shreeve-text

Rose Hill Cemetery

http://historicrosehillcemetery.org/about.asp

Rose Hill has always been a favorite location of mine in Macon, GA.  The cemetery is nearing 200 years old, with thousands of people buried there.  It is a resting place for thousands of confederate soldiers as well as former governors, mayors, senators, and entertainers.  A primary founder of my sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, is buried in Rose Hill.  Her name is Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, and she founded ADPi at Wesleyan College in Macon in 1851.  Each year, we visit Eugenia's grave to celebrate the initiation of our new members.

Additionally, as a photography minor, I have taken hundreds of photographs in Rose Hill, including black and white film photos, like the one below.

Ocmulgee National Monument

Those who first settled in what is now the Ocmulgee National Monument did so for a variety of reasons.  First among them was its location along the river, which provided them with a source of water, vital to life and essential for food production.  Second, the fertile soil in the area surrounding the river provided the perfect conditions for a variety of crops to grow in.  Colonists later settled the area for some of the same reasons, but they also used the river as a means of transporting goods to other locations.  Highways and railroads were also constructed through Macon, making it a prime location for  settlement, while also maintaining easy access to nearby cities like Atlanta, Savannah, and Columbus.

Ocmulgee Mounds

http://www.nps.gov/ocmu/historyculture/index.htm

rocks & minerals

Rocks

Igneous

  Granite--quartz, feldspar, & hornblende
  Diorite
  Basalt (columnar)
  Pumice
     Magma--below ground
     Lava--above ground

Diorite

"Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar (typicallyandesine), biotite, hornblende, and/orpyroxene. It may contain small amounts of quartz, microcline andolivine."

"Diorite is a relatively rare rock; source localities include Leicestershire; UK (one name for microdiorite - Markfieldite - exists due to the rock being found in the village of Markfield),Sondrio, Italy; Thuringia and Saxony inGermany; Finland; Romania; Northeastern Turkey; central Sweden; Scotland; the Darrans range of New Zealand; the Andes Mountains; the Isle of Guernsey; Basin and Range province; Minnesota in the USA, and Idahet in Egypt.

An orbicular variety found in Corsica is called corsite."

Metamorphic

  igneous rock under pressure; crystal structure transformed
  Gneiss

Gneiss

"Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks."

Sedimentary

  sediment turned into rock
     Shale
     Slate
     Sandstone
     Siltstone
     Shellstone: coquina
     Limestone
     Kaolinite

Shale

"Shale is a fine-grained, classic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite."
Shale is often found in slow-moving water, lakes, lagoons, river deltas, floodplains, and offshore from beach sands.

Minerals

Quartz
Feldspar
Hornblende
    pyrite, halite, calcite, mica

Quartz

"Quartz is an abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-preciousgemstones. Throughout the world, varieties of quartz have been, since antiquity, the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings."

soil types

Soil Texture Diagram

Munsell Color Charts

Munsell 

Munsell Color System

Twelve Soil Orders

Soil Layers

Soils of Georgia

Georgia Soils

http://www.georgiawildlife.org/node/1704

plants around campus

Itea

The Itea is a perennial shrub that grows actively in the spring.  The plant grows well in medium to wet soil and full sun to part shade.  The Itea plant can grow up to four feet tall and produce fragrant white flowers.

Loropetalum

The Loropetalum is a purplish-green shrub that produces flowers in the spring.  The shrub has asymmetrical leaves that grow on the rounded shrub.  They grow in well drained soil in full or partial sunlight.  

Holly Bush

The Holly bush, also called the Illex, is a slow-growing bush that can reach up to 33 feet if left unattended.  The bushes have glossy leaves that are often pointed at the end.  Many produce small reddish fruits that ripen in the winter.

Marigold

Marigolds are orange or yellow flowers that bloom in the spring, summer and fall.  They grow in various types of soil and need plenty of sunshine.  There are about 50 different species of marigolds.

Camelia

Camelia's are flowering plants native to eastern and southern Asia.  Debate over number of species ranges from 100 to 250.  They are actually small trees that can grow up to 60 feet tall, though they are usually trimmed.  They grow large flowers varying in hues from white to red.  They grow well in acidic soils with plenty of water, and usually grow rather quickly.

Angel's Trumpet

The Angel's Trumpet, also known as Brugmansia, is a shrub-like flowering plant that grows large trumpet-shaped flowers in varying colors.  Though nice to look at, this plant is toxic when ingested.  It has hallucinogenic effects, but also causes a number of other symptoms which will eventually lead to death.  Angel's Trumpet is native to tropical climates but have been adapted to other climates as well.

Pecan Tree

The Pecan tree is a tree native to North America.  It's name comes from an Algonquian word that means 'a nut requiring a stone to crack.'  They grow from 66 to 180 feet and produce pecans in the fall.  The pecans grow inside a woody shell contained by a softer husk.  

Sycamore Tree

The Sycamore tree is native to North America.  It is distinguishable by its bark, which has an irregular color due to the flaking off of its bark.  Sycamores can grow from about 98 to 130 feet in high.  They have dark, rough bark on the lower parts of the tree, with light, smooth bark towards the top.

Magnolia Tree

The Magnolia grandifloras are evergreen trees native to the southeastern United States.  They grow up to 90 feet and have large dark green leaves.  They also produce large, white flowers in the late spring.

Ocmulgee River

For this lab we visited the Ocmulgee River and measured the depth of the river, the flow rate of the water, and the amount of clams? at various depths.

To measure the depth of the river at various points, or the elevation below the river bank, there were two poles with clearly marked measurements.  Attaching the poles was a string with an object attached that helped determine whether the string was parallel to the water line.  Two people would each hold a pole and stand at different points across the river.  They would then move the string so that it was parallel and record the distance from the string to the height of the water on each pole.  The difference of these two measurements would tell how deep one part of the river was in relation to the other.

To measure the flow rate of the water, one person would stand upstream with a floating object.  The other person would stand downstream at a particular distance from the first  person.  The first person would release the object from upstream and someone would use a stopwatch to measure the time it took for the object to reach the person downstream.  The flow rate can be calculated by dividing the distance between the person upstream and the person downstream by the time it took for the object to travel downstream to that person.

We also used different sized screens to collect sand and sift through it to find small clams in the river.  We were looking to see if there was a higher concentration of clams at a particular depth of the river.

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac

Lab #1 - Maps

Choropleth Map

A choropleth map uses varying colors to visually display statistical differences across a region, looking at things such as population density or, as seen above, voter turnout as a percentage of voting age population.

Dot Density Map

Dot density maps use dots to visually display the concentration of a particular phenomena in an area.  Dots are typically used to represent a larger statistic in that particular area.

Proportional Symbol Map

Proportional symbol maps use symbols of varying sizes to represent a particular statistic in an area.  Typically, the larger the symbol, the larger the statistic of whatever is being represented.

Isopleth Map

Isopleth maps use curved lines to stand for a particular number.  Typically, the statistic is lower below the line, higher above the line, and somewhere in the middle between two lines.  In the map above, the the average level of precipitation in inches in Georgia, from the Florida state line to that first large contour line, would be between 55 and 50.