2014 Emily Vuong
Mentor Company - Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary and the Calgary Zoo
My Operation Minerva Experience
One science class, many months ago, my science teacher introduced me to Operation Minerva. He told me that it was an organization created to help and inspire grade 8 girls that have an interest in the scientific fields. This was the ultimate chance for me to explore different branches of science that fascinate me most. I asked to be put into to the draw and was lucky enough to be one of two girls in my school to take part in this incredible program. I couldn’t wait to job shadow a female and ask her all these questions that have been filling up in my mind since the day I was told I was attending Operation Minerva. I’ve always known that women can be just as intelligent as men; I know that for a fact because I always beat my brother at board games. There shouldn’t have been a rule back then that women were lower than men. I remember one time, my mom told me about a famous female scientist from the 18th century named Wang Zhenyi. She was an astronomer and also studied mathematics, geography and medicine. I was blown away by how much she achieved through a short life of 29 years. I live in a time period where women are no longer considered under men and women now have the freedom to become whatever they want so I don’t have to worry.
On May 1st, 2014, I got onto this enormous bus early in the morning and was headed to the University of Calgary campus to meet my mentors which were two lovely Biological Anthropologists, Mackenzie Bergstrom and Stephanie Fox. First we found a spot outside to get to know each other. We played a game called “2 Truths and A lie”. In the end, I learnt a lot about the other girls and the mentors. Afterwards, we joined up with the Archaeology group and had a tour around the Anthropology and Archaeology office and workplace. In one of the rooms at the Anthropology level, I saw a skeleton of a gorilla. I noticed how wide its cheekbone and how small and hollow the space under the cheek bone was. Mackenzie explained that it was for the muscles that the gorilla formed underneath the cheekbone due to the food they had eaten during that time, that’s why it was so hollow. I wondered to myself, what had they been eating that gave them such immense chewing muscles? When we finished the tour around the two departments, we headed back into a classroom where Mackenzie and Stephanie explained what exactly an Anthropologist is and what they do. Turns out, Biological Anthropology is essentially the study of humans in a comparative perspective. Anthropology explores how we behave, the human evolution and adaptations. It is a very diverse field because it surrounds all the biological and behavior sciences. Mackenzie and Stephanie’s job is very enthralling. Mackenzie shared her experiences at Costa Rica, studying the White Faced Capuchins. And Stephanie shared hers about Black and White Colobus monkeys in Ghana. They spent many months observing their assigned species and studying about their behaviors. One thing that fascinated me most was how Mackenzie took all the types of food that the Capuchins consumed, dried it up and shipped them out to a lab in New York where it told her how many calories a capuchin consumes a day. It’s really incredible watching how our technology is advancing by each second. I think its mind-blowing seeing how we can now track down how many calories a monkey consumes.
At one point during the presentation, there was a slide with two sets of monkeys and three pictures of each of them. We were then asked to point out at least one thing that made each monkey differ from another. I found it challenging because they all looked so similar! As I observed much closely, I realized that there are some faint differences. For example, the black and white colobus monkeys, they all have different hair lines. Some may have a straight line, and others might have a wave to it. Also, the white fur around its face’s size may differ depending from its gender and age as well. Overall, there are many ways to ID a monkey. Stephanie explained that as you learn about them more, it becomes a piece of cake to identify them. Like how one of the girls suggested, it’s like a pair of twins. You can recognize them easier as you start to know them better. As we got near the end of the presentation, Mackenzie and Stephanie explained to us that one of the most crucial parts when observing anything is recording data and the ability to graph it out. They showed us pictures of them using these devices where they type down notes when observing their monkeys. And Stephanie said she had taken over 1,000 notes during her trip in Ghana! They also showed us these graphs they created for their research. It looked complicated, but once Mackenzie started to explaining, I could actually work out what its basic idea was.
One of the parts that I was super excited about for the day was that we were going to visit the zoo. After the presentation, we hopped into a van and drove off to the Calgary zoo! We found a spot and ate our lunch. Stephanie was telling us how when observing the animals, they break it up into 4 simple categories. Feed, Rest, Travel and Social. She told us that we were going to observe the gorillas and penguins that day and then comparing its behaviors.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, we walked to the Gorilla area and Mackenzie paired us up and we were all in charge on observing a different gorilla. Then, Mackenzie set the timer for 5 minutes and for every single 15 seconds we were to circle what they were doing at that point (Travel, Rest, Social, Feed.) The gorilla my partner, Erin and I got assigned to was a silver back gorilla. It was basically the leader of the group. For the whole entire 5 minutes, it sat in the same position. After getting fed, the gorillas usually rest; we came right after lunch, hence the reason why our gorilla was so lazy. Despite a non-active gorilla, after we finished our observations, I looked at the other gorillas and actually caught one defecating into its hand and then eating it up again! It was gross but, my mentor explained that it was because there were still nutrients inside. That’s why they would still eat it.
Shortly after seeing the hairy gorillas, we walked to the penguin exhibit. We did the same thing as the gorillas. I picked a cute rock hopper penguin that was active for the 5 minutes. It was socializing, wobbling around and mostly swimming! It was all over the place and I had quite some trouble keeping track of it. Later then, we gave Stephanie both our gorilla and penguin observation results and she made it into 2 different graphs. The 2 graphs showed how the gorilla and penguin are actually quite similar through their behaviors. Mackenzie also taught us how 2 graphs showing the same data can have different effects through different layouts. She also taught us how to figure out which graph would be best for whatever events we need them for. This got me interested in wanting to observe things more and then place the collected data into graphs. When I checked for the time, it was already 2 pm. Time flies but I still wanted to learn so much more with Mackenzie and Stephanie even though I was so shy to ask questions that I was planning to ask. But, my 2 mentors actually answered a lot of the questions I had in mind. Before we left, Mackenzie bought us all ice-creams; it was the perfect touch to a hot and full-of-information day.
On May 1st, 2014, I hopped into the van with a totally new perspective on behavioral science after a tiring yet interesting day spent with seven people I may never want to forget. I learnt about the importance of Anthropology and how man and animals are so alike to one another through our actions and attitudes. I learnt neat facts about gorillas and penguins, and how to ID animals through small details on their faces. I learnt how to properly gather data and display it through graphing. May 1st was such an amazing day. I learnt so much and met of group of girls that share the same interests as me, and that is Science! Not only has this made my knowledge about science become so much deeper but I feel like my interest towards the scientific field has grown so much stronger. I’m so thankful for such a good opportunity. Through all this, I realize why I love science so much, because absolutely everything fascinates me, including everything I learnt on May 1st.
