Congratulations to all the University High School Inventor's Club members for winning a Lemelson-MIT Inventeams Grant. You should definitely be proud. These prestigious awards only went out to 15 schools around the country. People in the Placencia area were excited to hear the news. I got this note from Alvin Henderson, co-owner of the Royal Maya Shrimp Farm.
"...Congratulations on winning the Lemelson-MIT grant for the algae recycling prototype! We have seen the encouraging results of the mangrove planting initiatives and hope that this new programme will meet with similar success.
Best regards,
Alvin"
The agenda for the next 8 months looks like this:
October 2009-January 2010: develop the prototype in Illinois
January 2009-May 2010: test the prototype in cooperation with Independence Jr. College at local shrimp farms
June 2010: Present results at the Inventeams conference in Boston
Time to get busy!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Wilbur's First Day
Here's a brief photo essay showing Wilbur Dubon's first day as an environmental intern.
We had a little mangrove planting in mind for an erosion control project. Adrian, Wilbur and I went out to gather mangrove propagules.
Mangrove propagules are pretty easy to get right now and we had 1,500 in about 45 minutes.
A test plot from last year had shown good promise for sediment retention.
Adrian showed Wilbur the finer points of propagule planting....
...and despite the rain and heat, Wilbur was off to the races.
1500 mangrove propagules are now in place to slow erosion and provide habitat.
That's a great first day. Well done Mr. Dubon!
We had a little mangrove planting in mind for an erosion control project. Adrian, Wilbur and I went out to gather mangrove propagules.
Mangrove propagules are pretty easy to get right now and we had 1,500 in about 45 minutes.
A test plot from last year had shown good promise for sediment retention.
Adrian showed Wilbur the finer points of propagule planting....
...and despite the rain and heat, Wilbur was off to the races.
1500 mangrove propagules are now in place to slow erosion and provide habitat.
That's a great first day. Well done Mr. Dubon!
Friday, October 9, 2009
An invigorating meeting
The Uni High Inventor's Club (plus one very cute 5 year old) met today to discuss designs for the algae recycling prototype. Multiple designs are being considered and they all show promise.
Keep an eye on the blog in days to come. Great things are happening!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Pending activities and welcome Wilbur!
It appears the next Inventor's Club meeting will be October 9 at 2:00PM (confirm with Mr. Bergandine). Club members will be brainstorming and going over designs.
In the meantime, work in Belize continues.
Wilbur Dubon, freshly graduated from Independence Jr. College (an adjunct institution to Independence High School), will kick off the intern program this year. A picture of the first meeting between Wilbur and Aquamar manager Linda Thornton is posted above. Wilbur will be engaged in field monitoring and water quality analysis in canals and mangrove areas over the coming weeks.
We hope to have 3 more students working on projects by January.
Welcome, Wilbur!
In the meantime, work in Belize continues.
Wilbur Dubon, freshly graduated from Independence Jr. College (an adjunct institution to Independence High School), will kick off the intern program this year. A picture of the first meeting between Wilbur and Aquamar manager Linda Thornton is posted above. Wilbur will be engaged in field monitoring and water quality analysis in canals and mangrove areas over the coming weeks.
We hope to have 3 more students working on projects by January.
Welcome, Wilbur!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Back in Belize
After enjoying some time in Illinois watching the start of the 2009 Cross Country Season (go Uni!), I'm back in Belize and ready to move ahead with projects here.
I'll be meeting with shrimp farmers soon and preparing to implement designs from the Inventor's Club.
Look for me back in Urbana from October 7-14th.
Is there any news on the Illinois end?
I'll be meeting with shrimp farmers soon and preparing to implement designs from the Inventor's Club.
Look for me back in Urbana from October 7-14th.
Is there any news on the Illinois end?
Here's a picture of a black mangrove forest that is going to be put into a private reserve this year. One of my projects will be working to set aside as much mangrove forest as possible this year. The little projections up from the soil provide oxygen to the roots of the black mangrove in marshy, anaerobic soil.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Some cool U of I people
This trip to Belize is winding down until September.
Before I leave, I want to take stock and introduce you to a couple of people working on this project who have U of I roots.
This is John Cheeseman, professor of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois. Here he is checking out a red mangrove that was planted in a farm effluent outlet last November. John visited last week and gave a rousing lecture at a mangrove conservation workshop that I hosted in Placencia. I can still hear the cheering....
Some one once asked how do mangroves absorb nutrients from effluent water when they're planted on the banks of the canal. That's a good question. Here's the answer. Check out those roots! That's pretty impressive root development for a 7 month old plant, eh?
This is Linda Thornton, one of my favorite people in the world. Linda manages Aqua Mar Shrimp Farm and is the owner of Cardelli Shrimp Farm. Linda as lived and worked in the shrimp aquaculture industry in Belize for decades. If you want to know anything at all about shrimp, ask Linda. She knows. She's also one of the toughest, and most accomplished people I know...AND...she has been a stalwart supporter of efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of shrimp farming...AND...she is a proud graduate of the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois.
Go Illini!
Before I leave, I want to take stock and introduce you to a couple of people working on this project who have U of I roots.
This is John Cheeseman, professor of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois. Here he is checking out a red mangrove that was planted in a farm effluent outlet last November. John visited last week and gave a rousing lecture at a mangrove conservation workshop that I hosted in Placencia. I can still hear the cheering....
Some one once asked how do mangroves absorb nutrients from effluent water when they're planted on the banks of the canal. That's a good question. Here's the answer. Check out those roots! That's pretty impressive root development for a 7 month old plant, eh?
This is Linda Thornton, one of my favorite people in the world. Linda manages Aqua Mar Shrimp Farm and is the owner of Cardelli Shrimp Farm. Linda as lived and worked in the shrimp aquaculture industry in Belize for decades. If you want to know anything at all about shrimp, ask Linda. She knows. She's also one of the toughest, and most accomplished people I know...AND...she has been a stalwart supporter of efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of shrimp farming...AND...she is a proud graduate of the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois.
Go Illini!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Working the ponds
The excavator has been hard at work at Aqua Mar shrimp farm removing old sediment from the sedimentation pond.At Royal Maya shrimp farm, we have been regularly cleaning and recalibrating the In Situ probe and collecting the data for further analysis.
We've had a few bumps and we're a bit behind schedule, but we're getting good baseline data and things are moving ahead.
As the Uni High summer vacation moves ahead, keep thinking creatively about the project and checking back on the blog. If you find something interesting, go ahead and post it. We'll be ready to dive back in when school starts in fall.
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