This week, I joined a few members of the team for an overnight field work trip in Western New York. This field work was part of the Compaction Project, in which we used a penetration meter and moisture meter to look at the relationship between manure application and compaction across a few fields. We left Ithaca early in the morning, arrived at the site around two hours later, and worked through the day. We had some technical difficulties on the first day with the penetrometer but managed to work together and push through, figuratively and literally. I also made sure to carry a speaker to play music as we worked, which made the challenging times much easier. The weather also turned out to be perfect for field work. The second day was a bit easier because we started to get the hang of the equipment, and we managed to finish early and head back to Ithaca. The best part of the trip was bonding with everyone else by getting to know them better, sharing laughs, and making good memories.
On Thursday, I had the pleasure of doing a Day in the Life Instagram takeover for the Animal Science department, where I posted videos showing what I do for my internship and answered questions that followers asked me. I posted videos showing field work, soil grinding, and microbial analysis. In addition to this, the lab happened to be attending a science communication workshop at the local science center that day, so I was able to show some of that as well. The workshop itself was great because it was very interactive and it demonstrated how to effectively communicate with audiences of different backgrounds. Seeing the science center and all of the animals was pretty fun as well. Through the Instagram takeover, it was nice being able to share the importance of the work being done in the SPEAR program and Cornell Cooperative Extension and educate the public about how we are helping to make agriculture more sustainable.
