{"id":5232,"date":"2011-12-26T09:37:55","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T17:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mlmlblog.wordpress.com\/?p=5232"},"modified":"2011-12-26T09:37:55","modified_gmt":"2011-12-26T17:37:55","slug":"pitching-oranges-in-the-name-of-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/2011\/12\/26\/pitching-oranges-in-the-name-of-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching Oranges in the Name of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Diane Wyse<\/a>, Physical Oceanography Lab<\/p>\n

One sunny afternoon at the beach in Moss Landing, beachgoers were treated to a tangy surprise. Dr. Erika McPhee-Shaw\u2019s<\/a> Physical Oceanography class made the most of the beautiful weather and nearby beach to observe the effects of alongshore transport in the surf zone.<\/p>\n

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Physical oceanography students observing wave action on the Monterey Bay. Photo: Jason Adelaars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the shore, students observed the waves breaking and made predictions about the direction of alongshore transport and where convergent rip currents would occur.<\/p>\n

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Feeding surfers? Not exactly. Vertebrate Ecology Lab student Emily Golson pitches an orange to observe it move in the surf zone. Photo: Jason Adelaars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did they test these predictions?\u00a0 Why, launching citrus into the surf zone, of course!\u00a0 Members of the class warmed up their pitching arms and threw oranges into the water from the beach.\u00a0 They observed and discussed where the oranges traveled as a means of visualizing transport of sediment and plankton with the movement of water in the near-shore environment.<\/p>\n

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Students discuss the movement of the oranges in the surf zone. Photo: Jason Adelaars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dr. Erika McPhee-Shaw launches an orange in the name of science. Photo: Jason Adelaars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Physical Oceanography Teaching Assistant Shandy Buckley (L) discusses alongshore transport with students. Photo: Jason Adelaars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Diane Wyse, Physical Oceanography Lab One sunny afternoon at the beach in Moss Landing, beachgoers were treated to a tangy surprise. Dr. Erika McPhee-Shaw\u2019s Physical Oceanography class made the most of the beautiful weather and nearby beach to observe the effects of alongshore transport in the surf zone. From the shore, students observed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[214],"class_list":["post-5232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-physical-oceanography-lab"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"MLML Student Life","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}