Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Integrity Roofing Nw Sustainability Officer, Sam Woodman

College of the Environment Internship Reports

My internship as the Sustainability Officer at Integrity Roofing NW has been an invaluable learning experience that has enhanced my understanding of sustainable roofing practices and provided me with practical skills and insights into the roofing industry. Over the past few months, I focused on several key objectives, including mastering the ins and outs of sustainable roofing, identifying and promoting cost-effective and environmentally friendly materials, understanding the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable practices, and applying knowledge from my Environmental Science (ENVS) and Economics (ECON) classes to real-world scenarios. Additionally, I sought to develop my proficiency in Excel and gain …

Deception Pass State Park Intern, Chloe Lindstrom

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Most of my background science work and most of what guided me towards Environmental Science was marine science and marine biology. I have an abundance of experience collecting oceanography data, and working in aquatic environments, but one of my learning goals was to branch out and away from marine science. Not only is it a popular destination for guests hoping to go outside and enjoy nature, but Deception Pass is also home to much wildlife. I regularly encountered chipmunks, bunnies, squirrels, bald eagles, red-tail hawks, deer, orcas, and other birds and mammals during my internship. All these organisms rely on …

Wwu Iws Internship, Andrew Aguilar

College of the Environment Internship Reports

For my internship I worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Watershed Studies (IWS). IWS is a research institute affiliated with the College of the Environment at Western Washington University (WWU) that conducts research on freshwater lakes, streams, and wetlands. The main project that IWS works on is the Lake Whatcom Monitoring Project. This project has been monitoring Lake Whatcom since 1988 with the goal of providing a long-term record of data on a variety of water quality parameters. The monitoring program was initiated because Lake Whatcom is the primary drinking water source for the City of Bellingham …

Washington Conservation Corps Crew Member, Eric Newell

College of the Environment Internship Reports

During my time at WCC, I have learned about state government structure and have gotten a closer look at how it works from the inside. Previously I associated DNR with wildland 1 firefighting, which is one of the things they do, but now I understand that DNR has many, many divisions and a very complicated structure. The department is made up of fire experts, geologists, recreation managers, foresters, mappers, conservation experts, and much more. DNR has six regions and each of them operates largely separated from the others. This is advantageous because rules and regulations can be specific to a …

Birch Bay State Park Intern, Kylee Wright

College of the Environment Internship Reports

This past summer I worked at Birch Bay State Park in Birch Bay, Washington as a park aide. I spent the summer working with Park Rangers to keep this protected piece of land along the Strait of Georgia a space where people and nature can mingle. I wanted to work here because it seemed like the perfect way to start down the path towards working in the outdoors in a context where I am doing what I can to keep natural spaces wild and protected, while also making it possible for people to see them in all their splendor so …

Pacmam Intern, Natalia Debardeleben

College of the Environment Internship Reports

For my Summer internship, I assisted PacMam (Pacific Mammal Research) in Anacortes, WA and remotely. PacMam is a 501c3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to better understanding more about marine mammal populations in the Salish Sea. During my time interning for PacMam, the main marine mammals that they were focusing on were harbor seals and porpoises. The work that I conducted for PacMam was primarily in assisting with harbor seal identifications where I identified new seals, even naming a few, but also reidentified seals that had already been confirmed and added to the Seal Codex. With harbor seal research, there …

Wwu Marine Chemistry Lab And Field Assistant, Elsa (Christopher Adam) Lindenmeyr

College of the Environment Internship Reports

During this internship, I gained both laboratory and field experience through numerous things. I first learned how to assemble mold for the gels that would be used for the experiment. This was done by sandwiching a rubber tube and spacers between two pieces of glass and then pouring the liquid gels with a pipette. The pouring of the gels took preciseness to pour quickly enough that it doesn’t set half-way through and create stripes, and not pour so quickly that you get bubbles. I learned to make agarose and acrylamide solutions and how long and the conditions they need to …

Washington Conservation Corps Crew Member, Naomi A. Ellis

College of the Environment Internship Reports

One of my primary objectives going into this summer was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the realities of physical labor, an essential aspect of applied science in the field, especially in conservation work. Although I have always enjoyed working with my hands and challenging myself with outdoor activities, my professional experience in this area was limited. The job met this objective right away, starting with a backcountry overnight trip, or spike. Our task involved camping out for four days while assisting in a grid search through a conserved natural area for lost DNR materials. It was important to …

Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission Intern, Luke Joi Duvall

College of the Environment Internship Reports

This summer, I spent ten weeks working as a fisheries technician for the Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission. My primary position duties involved taking genetic and health samples for sockeye and chinook salmon. Throughout this summer I developed knowledge in the anatomy, ecology, management, and sampling techniques associated with salmon along with gaining insight and experience in other fields while collaborating with organizations outside my own. Furthermore, I gained valuable insight into the multiple organizations and attitudes involved in the management of natural resources throughout Alaska. Coming out of this experience, I feel prepared to progress further into research and conservation …

Community Boating Center Bioluminescence Intern, Eddie Joi Nosal

College of the Environment Internship Reports

2024 is the third year of the bioluminescence internship position at the Community Boating Center. In the last two years, the Community Boating Center has partnered with Western Washington University to assist in research on bioluminescence and education through guided night kayak tours. Previous research was done by now-WWU alumni Lucy Greeley and Carrley Smith with the goal of identifying bioluminescent dinoflagellate species, planktonic community composition during bioluminescent events, and the effects of environmental factors on brightness of dinoflagellates. The work done by previous interns has gained recognition from the Bellingham Herald, presented at conferences, and has had a video …

Shannon Point Marine Center Research Intern, Sam Joi Clement

College of the Environment Internship Reports

For the past two quarters, I have worked with Professor Morgan Eisenlord on two experiments involving eelgrass wasting disease. In both experiments, samples were collected from Padilla Bay. One, which dates back to the Summer of 2023, analyzes how the protist Labyrinthula zostera (which causes eelgrass wasting disease) presents itself in eelgrass when compared to algae. Another, primarily worked on by two students at the Shannon Point Marine Center during the Summer of 2024, analyzed differences in eelgrass wasting disease between two different species of eelgrass in Padilla Bay: Zostera marina and Zostera Japonica.

Whatcom Humane Society Wildlife Rehab Intern, Bella Joi Moore

College of the Environment Internship Reports

For my internship through Western, I decided to go with Whatcom’s Humane Socierty’s Wildlife rehabilitation center. This particular place is part of Whatcom’s few different centers for animals but this one in particular deals with wildlife animals and sometimes (temporarily) marine mammals. I’ve always known I wanted to work with animals so this experience was one in a million. It was very hands on and right in the middle of the field which was very cool.

Roni Lifeworks Intern, Anthony Ortiz

College of the Environment Internship Reports

During this internship, I was under the guidance of Dr. Jocelyn Enabulele (Roni Lifeworks) and Seth Schromen-Wawrin (Seattle Department of Health). I am deeply passionate about environmental science, and I have always been intrigued by the relationship between humans and the natural environment, therefore this internship was naturally appealing and likely contributed to my ability to secure such an awe-inspiring opportunity to play a significant role in this research project. It has offered me the unique opportunity to dive into and apply some of the knowledge and critical thinking skills I have attained directly in the field. Participating in this …

Wild Bird Wildlife Rehab Intern, Maggy Herman

College of the Environment Internship Reports

During my internship at Barnswallow, I worked three days a week and was responsible for a variety of tasks each day. Every week followed a similar schedule such as one day a week being reserved for cleaning and another for preparing food, among other tasks. My main objective was to support the rehabilitation center by completing assigned tasks ensuring that the center ran smoothly. Overall, my role as an intern was to help maintain a good quality of life for all residents at Barnswallow.

Landmark Environmental Intern, Meredith Czoschke

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Landmark Environmental specializes in assessing and remediating chemically contaminated sites, often involving construction or redevelopment projects. Their work is divided into several key aspects: Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), Phase II ESAs, and additional remediation activities. This report aims to provide a detailed account of my responsibilities, the skills I acquired, and how these align with my academic background and career goals.

Deception Pass State Park Beach Naturalist Intern, Mikaela Silva

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Deception Pass State Park in Oak Harbor, Washington, spans over 4,000 acres on two islands – Fidalgo to the north and Whidbey to the south (Deception Pass State Park, 2024). Originally, in 1866 the land around the pass was set aside to be a military reservation by the United States government (Deception Pass State Park, 2024). In 1922 the property was then designated by a Congressional Act for public recreation, creating Deception Pass State Park (Deception Pass State Park, 2024). The bridge that connects the two islands is a major tourist attraction along with the rugged cliffs, old-growth forest, historical …

Silfab Solar Processing Intern, Abigail A. Marshall

College of the Environment Internship Reports

The knowledge I gained about Lean manufacturing concepts also deepened my understanding of manufacturing and sustainability. A large part of Lean manufacturing includes a focus on reducing different types of waste. These wastes include transportation, excess production, excess inventory, defects, time, human talent, motion, and unneeded processing. Although the focus of Lean manufacturing is on maximizing production efficiency and improving customer value, many of these wastes are also deeply related to environmental sustainability. Unnecessary transportation, production, processing and materials are all direct contributors to carbon emissions. In this way, Lean manufacturing can be another valuable tool for both increasing profit …

Deception Pass State Park Beach Naturalist Intern, Joey Decaro

College of the Environment Internship Reports

The first day of my internship with the Deception Pass State Park was June 20th, 2024; the last was September 5th, 2024, where I had the privilege of being a Beach Naturalist at Rosario Beach. Deception Pass spans two different islands, Fidalgo and Whidbey, and has a plethora of attractions: the Deception Pass Bridge is the connection between the two islands; Cranberry Lake is a popular area to fish; the Rosario tide pools allow visitors to understand the ecosystem while protecting it; and many more. Due to all these attractions and the beautiful scenery, Deception Pass State Park is one …

Deception Pass State Park Beach Naturalist Intern, Cherise Russo

College of the Environment Internship Reports

This summer, I dedicated much of my time to supporting education and restoration at the tide pools of Deception Pass State Park. My internship at Deception Pass State Park has been an important learning experience. While working there, I have learned to work with people of diverse cultures, gained knowledge of the tide pool ecosystems of the park, and experienced working in a state park setting as part of a team and individually.

Mega-Projects, Cumulative Impacts, & Indigenous Nationhood On The Multinational Salish Sea, Natalie J.K. Baloy, Isabella Pipp

Institute Publications

In the Salish Sea, one of the major ports for today’s ships is Roberts Bank Superport, named for Henry Roberts (Vancouver’s predecessor), run by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, and located just north of the Canada-US border. In 2023, the Government of Canada and the Province of BC approved the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) project which will expand the port by building a second artificial island, adding three berths to accommodate increased capacity for container cargo.

Two court cases this year will challenge the Government of Canada RBT2 approval. One, issued by Ecojustice in alliance with several environmental organizations, …

Fluorescent Lifetimes Of Oils And Oil Distillates In Artificial Seawater, Warren J. De Bruyn, Aaron Harrison, Emma Kocik, Dhivya Manickam, Ethan Truong, Catherine D. Clark

Chemistry Faculty and Staff Publications

Supporting data associated with a study of the fluorescent lifetimes of eleven oil and oil distillates in artificial seawater are given. The table is a list of the oil and oil distillate names along with the associated sample numbers used in this study and their API densities.

The excel data file contains lifetimes as a function of emission wavelength for different oils and oil products shown by sample number. The lifetimes were measured with a Horiba DeltaFlex Lifetime System that uses pulsed diode light sources. There is a separate sheet for each excitation source: 268, 285 and 348 nm. Lifetimes …

Why Evidence-Based Hope Is Crucial To Salish Sea Recovery And Beyond, Dr. Elin Kelsey, Ginny Broadhurst

Institute Publications

In April 2023 and March 2024, the Salish Sea Institute engaged hope scholar and thought-leader Elin Kelsey, for events with the common theme of sharing information about evidence-based hope and helping the audience apply that thinking to combat the pervasive doom and gloom narrative that persists about climate change and the environment in general.

The first event was a 2 ½ day Hope for the Salish Sea (HSS) intensive environmental leadership workshop specifically co-designed and led by Elin, Ginny Broadhurst, Director of the Salish Sea Institute, and Mavis Underwood of Tsawout Community, WSANEC Nation. The Salish Sea Institute also organized …

Reflectance Spectroscopy Datasets For The Validation Of Tanager, Kristiana Lapo, Kathleen Hoza, Sammy Theuer, Melissa S. Rice

Geology Faculty Publications

The Three-Axis N-sample Automated Goniometer for Evaluating Reflectance (TANAGER) is a custom goniometer designed to rapidly acquire spectra of natural rock surfaces across the full scattering hemisphere. TANAGER interfaces with a Malvern Panalytical ASD Fieldspec 4 Hi-Res reflectance spectrometer to collect data from 350-2500 nm at a range of incidence, emission and azimuth angles. To validate the accuracy and repeatability of data collected with TANAGER - and to characterize any instrument noise, artifacts or sample heating effects - we collected spectra from three categories of targets: (1) powdered calcium sulfate (anhydrite), (2) naturally weathered basalt surfaces, and (3) color calibration …

Imaging Of The Shallow Crustal Structure Across The Region Of The 2013 Mw 7.5 Craig Earthquake With High-Resolution Seismic Streamer Tomography, Emma Martin, Andrew Gase, Emily Roland

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The Queen Charlotte Fault (QCF), located offshore of southeastern Alaska and western British Columbia, accommodates ~5 cm/year of right-lateral strike-slip between the Pacific and North American plates. This fault has generated several magnitude (>7) earthquakes, the most recent being a magnitude 7.5 Craig earthquake in 2013. Analyzing characteristics of damage zones and tectonically influenced subsurface geology surrounding the QCF fault trace, we present a seismic velocity model of a 147 km transect that crosses the approximate epicenter of the Craig earthquake. Ultra-long offset seismic streamer-recorded refractions sample the upper crust and are compiled for first-arrival travel-time tomography. Relatively shallow …

Automating Employee Milestone Celebrations At Geoengineers – Building The Work Anniversary Report Tool, Natalie Keys

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project tackles the inefficiencies and potential errors in the current manual tracking of employee anniversaries within the human resources department of a geotechnical engineering firm. By developing a web-based tool, this approach aims to automate and streamline the process, integrating with existing HR processes to ensure accurate and timely recognition of service milestones. The report details the entire development process, encompassing initial planning, design, technology selection, implementation, and testing. This comprehensive development approach ensures that the tool is tailored to meet the specific needs of the company. The significance of this project lies in its potential to enhance operational …

Evaluating Automated Accessibility Checker Tools, Thai Nguyen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The internet has grown into a tool that is essential for communication, education, and commerce. However, for those with disabilities, web content can often have significant barriers if it is not designed with accessibility in mind. Digital accessibility ensures that websites and applications are usable by everyone, regardless of ability. In order to make sure web content complies with accessibility standards, automated accessibility evaluation tools have grown in significance. This paper investigates the effectiveness of automated accessibility evaluation tools (AAETs) for identifying web accessibility issues. The research analyzed five prominent AAETs: Accessibility Insights, aXe DevTools, Lighthouse, SiteImprove, and WAVE and …

Evaluating How Well Open-Source Ai Models Interpret Written Prompts, Madeline Pysher

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The purpose of this study was to take a cursory look into understanding how good “utopian” urban form is interpreted by AI. The importance of this study is that AI is now being used in every facet of society. Some examples of this include using AI to find cures for diseases (Heaven, 2023), integrating with geography to create digital-twins that control traffic lights (Digital-Twin, n.d.), and fabrication of news and profiles on social media (Mishra, 2024). All this exposure to AI feeds into people's expectations and desires for an ideal world- aka for a utopia. Some current examples of how …

Ashes To Algae: Phytoplankton Communities In Early Successional Ponds At The Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Lillie Tomlinson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Freshwater biodiversity is declining worldwide, and ponds have been found to be incredibly biodiverse freshwater habitats that provide important ecosystem services and create critical terrestrial-aquatic linkages. Phytoplankton are fundamental components of aquatic communities and provide ecosystems with oxygen, send energy throughout the food web, and are an important food source for organisms like zooplankton. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens led to the formation of over 100 diverse ponds in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. This study aims to shed light on phytoplankton community dynamics and assemblages as well as regional differences in community dynamics in previously …

The Dawn Of A New Era: Generative Ai And The Future Of Work, Saunder Vanwoerden

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This article aims to provide a snapshot of the current capabilities and general sentiments towards generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology as of mid-2024. It offers an overview of how technologies like large language models work and summarizes some of AI's current abilities. The article also shares insights from interviews with tech industry professionals and students from Western Washington University, exploring how they use AI tools and perceive their impact on jobs now and in the future. These interviews revealed that generative AI is proving to be useful primarily in boosting productivity, eliminating some tedium from work, and aiding in the …

Death After: A Visualization Of Death In A Digital Medium, Cole Yamamura

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

NOTE: a free version of GameMaker is required to run this game and can be downloaded from https://gamemaker.io/en/download.

DEATH//AFTER is an original video game, generated by Cole Yamamura, in which a masked figure invites users to engage in one last encounter before their demise. Much like life, the figure chooses the game but the user chooses how to move through it. Depending on the user’s choices, the figure reveals additional challenges or one of several possible endings. A limited, unfamiliar deck of cards further complicates the matter, and the masked figure neither forgives nor undoes the user’s errors.

DEATH//AFTER seeks …