Weekly WISE #3

Welcome back to Weekly WISE. This week, students got to visit Cenovus Energy, as well as the West White Rose Project in Argentia! Check out what Lily W. and Chloe R. were up to this week.

Lily W, Chemistry Research Assistant

Hello! My name is Lily, and I’m writing about my third week in WISE SSEP. I’m working as a Research Assistant in the Department of Chemistry under Dr. Lindsay Cahill. The study we’re currently working on is about the effects of microplastics on pregnancies! This study uses both human and mice test subjects, and this week I’ve been working with the mice. One of my main jobs is to exercise the mice on treadmills, as the study is also looking at the effects of exercise on pregnancies—whether it’s beneficial, detrimental, or has no effect at all. I have also been working with blood samples from human placenta; mixing them with chemicals in order to prepare them for filtering out microplastics. The paper we use to filter needs to be heated to around 200° to be sure that there’s nothing left on the paper that could affect our results! Outside of my lab work, WISE went on a tour of the Port of Argentia. I found it really interesting to hear all about the green energy that the port is helping create. Green energy is something that I love learning about, and I’m hoping that one day I will be able to work in that field. The group also had a social event this week where we watched the movie Hidden Figures. It was such a fun night, and a great time to talk to the other girls in the program! Overall, I am so grateful to have this experience with WISE, and I am looking forward to another week!

Chloe R, Atlantic Puffin Research Assistant

“Hi! My name is Chloe R., and my summer placement with WISE this summer is in the psychology department with Dr. Pierre-Paul Bitton. Since the start of the program, I have been learning about cognitive and behavioral ecology. I have been helping out a grad student under Dr. Bitton with his study on understanding puffin’s vocalizations and behaviors. Atlantic puffins are very quiet birds when outside, but in their burrows where they nest their eggs you’d be surprised to hear how vocal they are! Our main focus this summer is to start collecting data, which we are doing by banding PIT tags (small tracking devices) on a number of puffins and placing RFID antenna (the sensors that can detect PIT tags) in their burrows, along with microphones to record any noises they make inside. The goal of this is to monitor a certain number of mating pairs in their burrows, so we know which puffins are in there when the noise is being made. This could answer a lot of questions, like if males or females make different calls, or if they can recognize other birds who are not their mate.

This week our team went to Great Island to start tagging the puffins and setting up the RFI Dunits, but unfortunately I was unable to make it. Thankfully next week we are planning another trip to the island, so I am excited to finally get in the field!! We also went to Argentia this week as one of our tours with the other WISE girls, where we got a chance to see what the port is used for and the current projects being worked on out there. It was quite foggy but we did get to still see some of the buildings they have been working on, it’s really cool to see all the engineering that must have went into all the projects out there!

“It’s hard to believe I’m already halfway through my placement! I’m excited for what my last three weeks have in store.”