I got visit ZhaaZhaa’s hometown in Marble and met some of her family which was super exciting. I also met her dog Nala! (all of them were really nice and cute) Team Stream went to Gooseberry Falls which was absolutely stunning, we met up LeAnn, Bruce, and Myrna and went to the sandy lake memorial the next day, and we ended our trip with a poster presentation.

It was really exciting to be able to present my work to the public. The kids were especially intrigued when they saw how a bioreactor works (they saw a sample bioreactor that turned colored water to clear water). Definitely good practice for my next poster presentation! Shout out to Susie and ZhaaZhaa for helping me present!

Along with my bioreactor project, I will be doing a new project with ZhaaZhaa and Dan. It is very similar to ZhaaZhaa’s, but her project consists of rock from the Duluth Complex while my project focuses on pure pyrrhotite. I am waiting on the SRB to culture so no new information on that except that there is a decrease in sulfate concentration. Hopefully, I will be able to do PCR soon!

As a group, we did our first presentation at the St. Anthony Falls lab for the One Water summit! This was my first time ever presenting a poster to the public which was super exciting. I am glad to be working with all these wonderful people. We also had our first social on Wednesday, I hope to continue to have these fun little adventures with them.

I am still waiting on the culturing of my bacteria, so to keep me busy I will be working on a new project with ZhaaZhaa and Dan. From my data, we see that there are SRB in the microcosms. Now I am just going to take samples once a week and see if there is a change on a weekly basis.

Had a fun time on the fourth! We listened to live music, ate food, and watched the fireworks. Also, I was able to get some results from my experiment! I will keep you updated as I start to get more data.

This past week has been filled with a lot of background reading, but I am super excited that I will be working on sulfate reducing bacteria. Besides reading, I was also able to make media this week!  Happily, on Friday we decided to have a mini adventure since ZhaaZhaa had a car.

I had a great time in Montana! I met great people, tried huckleberry ice cream, and was able to see this amazing view!!!