Wednesday July 10, Day 5 
Final Research Day/ Practice Presenting Data


By Patrick Tran 
Today was a busy and productive day for my research group. Before the day even started, I feared that we might not have been able to complete our experiment. We were all frustrated about how to approach the project because our previous plan of action was over complicated and the question we were asking was too broad. When we began our data collection in the morning, we were dreading starting. However, we were feeling slightly more comfortable because on the way to Agrivoltaics, we were able to converse and share our ideas to narrow down the topic. It took some hard thinking but eventually our collaboration to reach the common goal helped us formulate an idea.
Agrivoltaics research group in the field 

Before our afternoon research, Marielle gave us a refresher on photosynthesis to clear up our misunderstandings. I realized that our group dove straight into data collection and completely disregarded the concepts. We are so used to being told to use the scientific method, but the troubles we went through really made us realize that we take that for granted. Structure and organization will obviously guide us our way out of being lost; however, we were unable to see that at first.


I feel like this is a great lesson for all of us in the future since the problem that we faced stressed the importance of taking the right steps. Our experience reinforced you can’t jump straight into the big things: start with the foundation and work through each new problem or idea from there. It takes time and patience to do good work, but in the end, with each small achievement and advancement, it will be worth it.

By Mya Liljenstolpe

Today was quite the important day for everyone. It was our last chance to finalize data for our research projects. And, for my group, our last day to sweat it out in the rainforest.
Which sounds all fun and games until it’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon at the highest point in the rainforest biome with at least 50% humidity and roughly 40 degrees Celsius. Now that’s what you call brutal. But, fortunately for me and my predisposition to crabby attitudes in high humidity, I had the perfect team to get me through with a smile on my face. Without knowing it they pushed me to get over myself, because how could I complain when they were right there with me- struggling through the same conditions as me? Who would I be to adopt a fowl mood when they were still trying to lighten the mood? I think as a group we really embodied the idea of living as a group and dying as a group, no man left behind. I’m grateful for this lesson in mental toughness and resiliency and endlessly thankful for such strong people to guide me through.




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