June 17th 2019 - The Start of the End.

This is the last week of the field school, which is sad for many, but also exciting because projects are being wrapped up. We are all working very hard to make sure that the reports for our individual projects are being done to the best of our abilities. Today was a mandatory class for all students, so everyone showed up to meet this morning.

Bob talked about the self and peer evaluations that students are to complete by Wednesday, so that he can get a better sense of what our grades should be for the professionalism portion of the course. Once that was covered, he got all students to give an update on their projects at our round-table discussion.

Aza told the class that she started using a software to plot the cedar planks from the road because sketching it to scale was very difficult. The software is called Rhinoceros and is used by architects. She also found that all of the planks that are buried deeper in the ground are preserved much better than the ones on the surface. Bob explained that microorganism's that lead to decay are less active in lower-oxygen environments, such as below the surface. There are also many other factors that can delay the decomposition of wood such as cold and dry environments.

A portion of the cedar plank road, mapped on a computer software by Aza.

Other students were assigned to work on sorting items in level bags, and cataloguing artifacts found in 2019. We only found a few artifacts this year, including the ointment bottle and the lid to a talc powder container. Sepideh is also working very hard to finish the animated video about the McKenzie Creek site. She is getting pictures and sketches from many people to incorporate into the video. If you want to see what projects students are working on, check the list out here if you haven't already.

Bob also talked about how he wants to take a group of students to look for the Hastings Seymour camp on Wednesday. He tried to find it on our first day, when he gave us a tour of the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, but was unsuccessful due to flooding that has occurred since he last visited it. Hopefully those students will be able to find it and tell the rest of the class about it on Thursday. 

After the morning discussion had ended, students had the choice to stay and work in the lab, or go home to work there. Students who still needed items from the lab to complete their projects stayed, and most others left to work on their projects at home. 

The day went smoothly, and everyone was happy to get the chance to see each other again after a week without a classroom meeting. Tomorrow will be an optional lab day, as most students are able to work from home, and Thursday will be our final day.