People of the Big River 2025 - Raquel Sanchez Perez

  People of The Big River Location: Wellpinit Fair Grounds Day 6 Day six we got to stay on the campgrounds and do all kinds of things with our bacteria that we collected. We all had breakfast as usual, and we spent the majority of the day with Dr. Schuster learning about the methodology of why we’re taking the samples and how to do it properly. Some of what we wrote down for our methodology section which we are including on a poster that we also have to put together for our class include. Collecting 50 ml water samples at each site. Next, while using aseptic techniques to make sure that everything is kept sterile. We measured environmental parameters like testing for pH, nitrates, and we measured water temperature. We also inoculated the bacteria on general media (yellow) NUT - TTC molecules or pigments that stain red if there is fecal matter found. As well as selective media Mackokely agar (red) which breaks down complex sugars and allows growth of gram-negative bacteria and...

  People of The Big River Location: Wellpinit Fair Grounds Day 5 Day five was another early day I got up and it was so cold especially since I went to sleep with my hair wet (very bad idea, never again, what was I thinking). Again, with our morning routine of breakfast, getting ready and packing lunch. Today we got to measure the health and potential growth of a creek running through the reservation and off of it onto a member of the community’s land. We got to use a special tool to figure out how deep the creek has cut into the land and the tech professionals that we were with for the day explained to us that a healthy creek is supposed to spread through the plains and valleys rather than cutting through them making them deeper. That was really interesting because it was a spot a group that took this class previously had helped out with a different part of that project, so it was cool for their instructors to see the growth and changes. However, I think the best part of the ...

  People of The Big River Location: Wellpinit Fair Grounds Day 4 Day four of our two-week trip and today was a travel day. We woke up and we had to pack everything up again to move on to our next site. Luckily, I packed up all my personal things the night before, so I just had to wake up get breakfast and pack my lunch for the day. The night before I stayed up talking with my tent mate Yoleth. We were talking about music and some of the people we were missing since we didn’t really have cell reception at our last campsite to text our loved ones. After getting everything put away and secured to head out, we were told that we would stop at the University to swap out the incubator we had brought to inoculate our water samples we've been collecting from the different sites. After that we started our journey to the next location. At each of the four locations we are collecting water samples for our own projects with Dr. Schuster and Dr. Black. However, the team that put together o...

  People of The Big River Location: Bird Creek … Day 3 Another busy day at the camp, day three we started out early. We woke up and had breakfast and packed up our lunches. Luckily, I had already packed my bag the night before, so it was just a matter of having breakfast and doing morning chores and I was set. Today I was in charge of dishes which wasn’t too bad. Dr. Black said we did a pretty good job, and we were early to meet up with everyone leading us in our project. Today we were privileged enough to have an opportunity to work on Yakama Nation land. We got to meet some members of the tribe who have done all kinds of work in the area we were around. We also met people working with the tribe that have been there for a variety of years. We met Doug Olney Who shared with us that he used to work in timber management/ harvest, and Doug is a member of the Yakama tribe. We also met John Washines who has been a fish tech for 12 years with the tribe and he also told us that he h...

 People of The Big River Location: Bird Creek … Day 2  Today we got up, put together all of the supplies for breakfast and also made lunches. I was on breakfast crew today, so I had to wake up earlier to set everything up. We had cereal, bananas, coffee and tea. I had a little of everything with a peach tea which was really good. We also set everything out for lunch which was sandwich stuff as well as snacks and fruit. after having breakfast and packing ourselves some lunch we cleaned everything up and packed our bags with our science and shower supplies. After collecting our samples and information from the rivers we were going to come into town to upload things, charge up devices and respond to messages since we don't have any service at the campground. We also were going to get the chance to shower which we've been told will be a privilege closer to the end of the two weeks. As for the collection of our creek samples, we went to two locations and learned to use most of the ...

  People of The Big River Location: Bird Creek … Day 1 The first day went by super fast, we arrived at the school and started out with lab techniques and learning how to stain bacteria so we can observe them with the microscope. It was really interesting, and I am excited to do a whole lot more over the next two weeks. After that we prepped everything, we needed to leave and loaded everything up. We have so many things, which is really nice, we’re very lucky to have experienced people. We got to our campsite and set up all of the things we needed for dinner, and everyone helped put everything together. We split up into teams, some helped cook dinner while others organized equipment. We were getting acquainted with the rhythm of the camp learning where all of the basic equipment is and where all of the dishes, food, and other items we might need while being out. We had dinner which was hamburgers, pasta salad, and tortilla chips. To drink cherry lemonade, I helped with this, (...