Day 30 - 7/24

Events presided over by: Dr. S. Stonedahl

Today was our last day of the summer research institute.  It's not super sad because we intend to continue in the fall, but it's still a little sad.  

Events: 
Final run through of the presentation.  
Moving stuff around 2nd Hayes.  (Between Dr. Stonedahl's two offices and the Hydrology lab)
And then we had the culminating Final Presentation!  

Getting ready

Obligatory photo with advisor

It was nerve wracking waiting to go FIRST.

The audience was a distinguished crowd full of faculty

and family...and they ALL waited expecting your brilliance.

We told them "we played with sand" and hoped to be done, but they still made us present.

We told them about our project...

And everyone was so dazzled by our greatness that none of the other groups wanted to present and everyone went home early...

Or at least they should have been.
In reality we got done, we got to stop stressing,

and we sat through many more presentations.  None of which were as good as our own. Dungeons and Dragons jokes may have been made...

Took some more obligatory photos

Successful completion of the Summer Research Institute!!!!
 Congrats!!
Great job presenting!
 Team Caleb was fabulous!!!!!

Day 29 - 7/23/15

We finished the presentation.
Practiced the presentation.
Revised the presentation.
Practiced the presentation.
Cleaned our Lewis research space.
Carted lots of stuff over to Hayes.
Practiced the presentation.
Were honored the hear the "Hyporheic Song"
Practiced the presentation.
Decided we were READY!!!!!

Day 28 - 7/22

Events presided over Dr Stonedahl
Guest appearances: loneliness

What we did.
    Began packing for the journey home
    staked a claim in Hayes hall
    disassembled the apparatus
    Compared EC data to concentration simulation

Day 27 - 7/21

Events presided over by Dr. S. Stonedahl
Guests: Dr. F. Prosise, engineering candidate #2 and Issac
What we did
     Further worked on PowerPoint
     Got particle tracking to work
     Time lapse process was begun
     Engineering lecture #2
    Created calibration solutions to be used in transferring Ec data into salt concentrations
   
   

Caleb working on calibration

Res-time Graph from particle tracking

Day 26 - 7/20

Events were partially presided over by Dr. S Stonedahl
Guest appearances: Dr. J Prosise and ENGR candidate 1 (I'm not good with names)
What we did
     As the lab was now a slightly more bearable temperature note books were removed from cooling
         chambers
     The constant head permeameter was dissembled brutally to strike fear into any other equipment that does not succumb to the will of the research overlords
     The falling head permeameter was lifted up upon a pedestal as it was determined to be the savior
           of the lab.
     The overlords took a hiatus to help determine the future of the engineering department.
     Another falling head permeameter was created so that they could fight in tandem the evil K-value
           problems
     The permeameters fought valiantly against the not understood K-value trend, but more errors
     appeared and overcame them.
     While the permeameter fought and pretty much let the whole realm down, the PowerPoint for
           Friday was executed by an overlord for being formatted weirdly.
     From its ashes rose a new PowerPoint, a superior PowerPoint, That is formatted correctly and will
           look totally kick butt and save the realm.

Day 5^2

Events presided over by Dr. S. Stonedahl, PhDictator.

Guest appearances by: Dr. F. Stonedahl, Malik Thalji, Issac Schwantes, Dr. Prosise, Prospective Student #187 from Montana, Prospective Student's Father

Guest blogger (thanks to slow "not-it" reflexes): Dr. F. Stonedahl

Today was "The Big One".  All of our lives have been spent training, building our skills, for this one day.  Previous apparatus runs were but pale shadows of the glorious success that will be hailed at the completion of this ultimate apparatus experiment.

(Essentially, it's the same setup as before, but hopefully all the bugs have been worked out, and this will result in glorious CLEAN data, magnificent photographic evidence, no abnormalities of flow, etc..)

So... the  time lapse camera was adjusted and started, the apparatus was started running with tap water for over an hour to get things settled down, then switched over to blue... Q measurements were taken at roughly ~15 minute intervals, and the EC meter was run continuously throughout, with periodic data downloads to prevent it from overrunning its (ridiculously small) storage limit.

Dr. S. Stonedahl and Caleb gaze in awe at the "Big One", as the clear water pushes the blue dye out.

Meanwhile, Caleb spent much time entering data in spreadsheets, 

In other news, as a result of unfavorable weather and faulty air conditioning, and the inside room temperature rose to approximately 451 degrees Fahrenheit, and all of the lab notebooks had to be soaked with blue dye water to prevent spontaneous combustion.  Ice buckets were also embraced, to help stave off heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and fiery death for as long as possible.  The time is 6:06, and the apparatus has not finished running yet, and only time will tell whether all of the brave researchers will survive to the completion of the experiment.  If you do not see a new blog post on this blog on Monday, assume the worst.  In that contingency, please send someone to Lewis Hall to collect all of our valuable data, so that our contribution to science will be recognized, and our sacrifice will not be in vain.

Day 24 - 7/16

What we did
    Finished cleaning apparatus
    Flowed water through apparatus
    Put dividers in the apparatus
    Took k values from both CH and FH permeameters

        Still slightly bothered by FH
    Began filling apparatus

    Finished filtering sand

    Washed sand

    Worked on presentation
    SRI lunch
    Increased brightness in time lapse video
    Made final adjustments to set up

   
What we will do
    Test 4 (final test)
    Permeameter work