AGSC 5110 Research Methods

“Mama Rose, can we talk?” she said as tears are starting to well up in her eyes. “Of course!” I always say, not really knowing what will come next.

A little background before we begin.

I have only been teaching going on 3 years in high school. Before that, I was a 4-H Agent and I loved my job, but I love my job even more now.

We hear it all the time, but let me say it again: teachers put up with a lot.

Not just the everyday things that are involved with our jobs, it’s what I am about to share with you today. I first and foremost build a bond with my students. I believe that this is the reason I normally have a great classroom atmosphere, nipping any negativity in the bud as soon as I see it and making my students feel like they are family. We may have family that we just don’t really care for, but we still respect them.

When I stepped foot into my very first class of freshmen in January of 2017, I knew that these kids would become my babies. In high school, we all have had that one mentor or teacher that we poured our heart and soul into. As an Ag teacher and FFA advisor, our babies mean the world to us and boy they end up sometimes oversharing. We are with them so much, we know them better than their parents in some cases. As I look back at that class now seniors I am reminded of the wonderful blessing God had put into my life when he gave me those kids. Some never took an Ag class again, but those who did have made a lasting impression on me. I know that we are normally the change-makers in their lives, helping them to decide which class to take or what path of life they want to live. It is our job to help raise them, mature them, sometimes nurture them, and give them every opportunity that we can in order for them to succeed. 

This is the beautiful side of teachers that we all see. We often forget that most teachers (those that actually are in love with their job–you know the difference) take home the burden of these kids. We pray for them, hold them close to our hearts in order to help them make their life decisions. We DO NOT see the rest of the story.

I have helped these students in their most desperate time of need. I have watched them as they started a new and exciting high school “relationship” and then when they needed it, I was their rock to lean on when they were dumped. I have mentored them for their college careers, given them the opportunity to vent about another teacher or student, laughed, cried, rejoiced with them from the biggest of victories to the mightiest of mountains. I have leaned on God when I couldn’t hold their burdens any longer. I have helped a kid through suicidal thoughts, talked them down off of the tallest ledges, and given them peace in knowing that this is not all that life has to offer, this, high school, is just the beginning of their beautiful journey. I have watched them grow. In all my days when kids are driving me crazy and I hear my name about a million times in one day, I think back to those moments and my heart is so full. Although sometimes I would come home sobbing in knowing what my students faced, I would remain their strong and constant confidant. I have had sleepless nights over other people’s children as I watch my own on her monitor. Each student has a story and I am humbly blessed to just be a small part of this chapter of life. The names Mama Rose, Rosie, Jessica, and just plain Ms. Rose will always hold a special place in my heart as I get to watch these kids grow into beautiful adults.

The giant African snail is a highly invasive pest and is considered globally as one of the top 100 pest species with the greatest invasion potential. In October 2008 this pest was discovered in an area of my home country called Diego Martin in Trinidad and Tobago and by November 2017 it was reported to have infested 18 new areas where agricultural crop production is prominent.

This snail is a big problem because it consumes over 500 crop species and is a threat to human health by having the potential to spread the rat lungworm which is linked to meningitis in humans. Eventually, a granular form Metaldehyde was recommended to eradicate this pest but it only worked in close proximity and is detrimental to human health being within contact with the crop.

The population of snails was rising rapidly due to several natural factors such as the rainy season which provides required proliferating conditions and the ability of each snail to have both testes and ovaries and is capable of producing both semen and ova. The increase in devastation got to a point where farmers were abandoning their farming land which they had occupied for years.

In 2018 a former professor and I planned to incorporate food-grade essence with the metaldehyde to work as an attractant since snails are powered by their sense of smell and it was better to lure them away from the vegetation into a kill zone. Food grade essence was added to Liquid metaldehyde at a one to one ratio to cotton pads and placed in petri dishes in the heart of the infested area and left for a 12 hour period. We placed the raw metaldehyde as the control and the food-grade essence as the treatment. When we arrived at the field there were many dead snails gathered around the petri dishes. After testing, many farmers and pest control agencies started using the control with the attractants. Currently, these snails are just pain of the past.

It was unknown if metaldehyde contained attractive properties but after the field experiment, if any mode of attraction was present, it was clearly amplified by using food grade essence. The metaldehyde treatment is now available with other attractants such as molasses.

Fun fact – Giant African snails are Omnivores, they love to eat other snails and banana is a favorite.

Today I had a good laboratory session. The Laboratory’s goal was to achieve consistency of cohesion on what activities were done by each assistant on a daily basis. Record keeping is very important in a laboratory being that it is an essential practice for ensuring accuracy and consistency. I think documentation is the reflection of the laboratory’s organization and its quality management. A well-managed laboratory will always have a strong set of documents to guide its work.

We were introduced to a tool called Rocket Book Everlast.  Everyone was assigned a note book to record tasks or activities done when present at the laboratory.

When you write using any pen from the pilot frixion line, your writing sticks to ever-last pages like regular paper. You can scan what was written with the rocket book app and your notes goes to any online destinations, for example Google Drive, Dropbox, and Ever-note , perfectly organized. To recycle a page just add water to the cloth provided and gently wipe away the notes. When the notes are transferred online everyone within a laboratory can view it and know exactly what was done and can continue whatever procedure without problems.

It feels like a classic pen and paper experience built for the digital age. It is important to keep away from heat because all data can be erased at high temperatures since frixion ink is thermally sensitive. However, if the notebook is placed in a freezer for an hour, the coldness can slightly bring back the ink color.