|
| Select Framework:
|
|
| Select Grade: | |
 |
| Loading...This may take few minutes. |
|
|
Title
|
Allison Pace
|
|
Type
|
Primary: Student Argonaut
|
|
Operation
|
Resilient Planet
|
|
Mission:
|
Mission 1: Invaders , Mission 4: Paradise Found , Mission 5: The Rescue
|
|
|
Created On
|
3/10/2008
|
 |
From: Resilient Planet Mission 1: Invaders , Mission 4: Paradise Found , Mission 5: The R> (and more) |
 |
|
|
Allison Pace Read more about Allison Pace, a Student Argonaut from Operation: Resilient Planet. |
|
|
|
Allison Pace
Student Argonaut,
Brownsville, TX
|
|
|
Allison is a veteran JASON participant. She has participated for many years via technology to virtually-visit such JASON sites such as Alaska, California’s Channel Islands, Panama, Hawaii, and the wetlands of Louisiana. However, this year she is a Student Argonaut and traveled – in person – to the Great Lakes, Stellwagen Marine Sanctuary near Boston, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California to study with researchers. Allison wants JASON students to know that she tried twice to become an Argonaut and she made it on the second try - so don’t give up!
Allison lives only a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf is what inspired her love of marine biology. She thinks that learning about marine organisms and their life cycles is amazing. She is distressed because the abundance of certain organisms that live in the mangroves is decreasing dramatically. She wanted to know why the is happening so she followed the reconstruction of the mangroves in Bahia Grande to find out more. It was very exciting because that work helped bring back marine wildlife and migratory birds. She says her future goal is to become a marine biologist. Her science teacher says that Allison is always up to a challenge and has an excellent ability to devise a plan of action to get the job done; whether it’s sleeping with the sharks in San Antonio or taking on a science fair project on native plants and hummingbird attraction.
When asked what challenges she has met in her life, Allison talks about everyday peer pressure. She admits that standing up for what you believe in is very hard, but she has noticed she is becoming stronger every time she has to do it. Allison believes being able to go against the grain requires support from your family, friends and teachers and she has those in abundance.
In her own words
Thoughts on JASON Boot Camp
I arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the first time ever to begin JASON Boot Camp and Mission 1! Many things were going through my mind like what are we going to do? And what type of people will be there? I was excited and even a bit nervous. Once I got there everything was fine and everyone was friendly and great to be around. We got to know each other a bit and then headed out of the airport to start our adventure!
Thoughts on Dr. Russell Cuhel
We spent almost all day at the Great Lakes WATER Institute with scientist Dr. Russell Cuhel. We collected data about the Zebra and Quagga mussels. At one point we were all about to fall asleep on “Dr. Cool’s” lecture because we were so exhausted from the day before working all day on Lake Michigan!
Thoughts on her Mission Field Assignment
After we graduated from Boot Camp we found out what Mission we would be going on. My team consists of Lewis, Derek, and Randy, and we went to Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary! I was so excited about it I couldn’t wait!
Thoughts on Dr. Leila Hatch
We went to the Stellwagen Banks Annex where we met Dr. Leila Hatch (the whale whisperer) and Mike Thompson. We started filming, and we had the camera in our face at all times once again! We saw the film crew and they still remembered us from last time, and then the jokes between the crew and the Argos began again! Once we started filming Mike Thompson taught us all about autonomous recording units, better known as Pop-Ups, which contain a Hydrophone which is used to record underwater noises, mainly whales’ songs. He used the Pop-Up, which look like a big yellow plastic balloon outside, but have a computer hard drive and other fragile equipment sealed inside. We ended up helping to deploy this Pop-Up on the boat.
Thoughts on Dr. Enric Sala
We went on another Mission to examine the ecological niche of a tide pool and pristine ecosystems. We met with the film crew and discussed how we were going to work with Host Researcher, Dr. Enric Sala. We met with Dr. Sala. He was awesome! His views on ecology were so interesting and he had a great sense of humor. We did some filming at Scripps, and we learned about pristine ecosystems. Throughout the filming we had lots of mess-ups and bloopers, and Dr. Sala was usually the one making us laugh!
On career options
The JASON experience is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to work alongside some of the best researchers and being able to bring all of the things we learned back to our community. I’ve always loved marine mammals, especially dolphins and whales, and this opportunity helped me to understand them even more. I think this experience has also pushed me into studying whales and dolphins along with their acoustics. I would really want to do something along the lines of what Dr. Leila Hatch studies. I would hope there can be even more chances to come back to study the whales and other marine mammals.
What JASON means to me
I want to bring everything I’ve learned from JASON not only from this expedition, but from all the others, back to my community. The Host Researchers have truly inspired me to really spread the word about our ocean’s health, ecosystems, whales, etc. I was so happy to have gotten to work with the JASON crew, and meeting new people and making life-long friends along the way! It takes so many people to make JASON happen, and I was so happy to have met people from all different backgrounds. I really hope to work with the Argos and Host Researchers again one day!
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|