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Day 8 – Final Presentation!

Today we finished up our work experience by presenting our PowerPoint to Mr. Self at his office building. While heading up to the conference room, we ran into the other group working with Vector Textiles (we had to kick them out of the room). We even met Mr. Self’s dog (very cute and also very shy). The presentation went well, Mr. Self had a lot of interesting questions. He seemed to like the information though! If we had more than 8 days I feel like we definitely could’ve dug deeper and done more research on some of the questions he brought up. This work experience has been great, and I had a lot of fun researching the effects of permethrin in sub-Saharan Africa. I learned a lot of new and interesting things. I’m really grateful that I got to work with Mr. Self and his company Vector Textiles!

Day 7-Practice Presentation

Today my groupmates and I met in person in a library study room to practice our presentation. After a few hiccups (we couldn’t figure out how to connect to the TV and ended up leaving it on the Bob Ross channel) we got to work. We first went over the different slides to see if there was any repeating information, then discussed who was going to present which slides. After figuring out the order, we ran through the presentation once. Overall, it was a good PowerPoint. I dumbly forgot to bring the thank you card, so we all agreed to sign it tomorrow when we go present our research to Mr. Self.

Day 6 – Continuing Work On Our Presentation

Today was pretty chill as we spent time finishing up our power point. We had originally planned to do a zoom with Mr. Self tomorrow morning, but we cancelled it after we realized that we didn’t actually have anything to talk to him about. Everything has been going smoothly so we don’t have any questions for him. Since we cancelled the meeting we plan to have a practice presentation tomorrow morning instead. It’ll be in-person and at school in a CMS conference room.

Day 5 – Preparing the Powerpoint

Today started off with a quick meeting with Mr. Self where we discussed our plans for the next few days. Afterwards, my group members and I had a separate call where we outlined our idea for the power point. We sent our outline to Mr. Self and after he approved it, we began work on setting up the power point and inputting all of our research. We made plans to meet up in person so we could practice our presentation before we present on Thursday.

Day 4 – LLUNs or LLINs? Moving Away From Chemically Treated Mosquito Nets

Today while doing more research about the use of mosquito nets in sub-Saharan Africa I stumbled upon the heated debate between using LLUNs or LLINs. LLUN stands for long-lasting untreated nets while LLIN stands for long-lasting insecticidal nets. The main difference between the two types of mosquito nets is that LLINs are treated with insecticides while LLUNs are insecticide free. Proponents of LLUNs argue that mosquitos are becoming resistant to the chemicals used to treat LLINs, so instead of waiting for science to innovate more insecticides we should be utilizing untreated nets that offer the same protection as LLINs. The article I read made a lot of great points about the importance of implementing LLUNs that paired great with my research about the dangers of permethrin since it is a chemical that is commonly used in insecticides and to treat mosquito nets. After today, our research has mostly been finalized so now all that’s left to do is to work on the presentation!

Vector Textiles Environmental Modeling Day 3

We started off today with another zoom meeting with Mr. Self, where we told him how our research was going so far and made plans for future zoom meetings up until the big presentation day on June 3rd. When the call had ended, we continued with our individual research. My main goal for today was to find more information about the environmental consequences of using pesticides or insecticides containing permethrin on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. I was able to find some good sources. It was interesting to see how all the environmental changes caused by the over-reliance of pesticides containing permethrin on African crops were connected. The over-reliance causes loose to no regulation on pesticide use, which causes African farmers to use more than suggested, which leads to excess residue on the plants. That residue can easily get on the hands of the farmers or into the soil or water, which can cause widespread contamination.

Vector Textiles Environmental Modeling Day 2

Today our group came up with three main topics to focus our research on: permethrin effects on humans, overall effect on ecosystems, and regional effects in sub-Saharan Africa. We split into pairs with each pair focusing on a different topic. My sister and I researched how permethrin affects ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa. I spent most of my time trying to calculate how much permethrin is used in the production of mosquito nets annually, a question that Mr. Self asked us to research in a previous email. Then I organized my findings in an infographic. The data was very interesting, and I learned that approximately 1.4 billion grams (roughly 3 million pounds) of permethrin is used in the production of mosquito nets each year.

Vector Textiles Environmental Modeling Day 1

Today marked our first day working with Mark Self, CEO of Vector Textiles. Vector Textiles is a company that creates chemical-free insect and bite resistant clothing and nets. We started off the day with a meeting where Mr. Self explained what are research topic is, which is to explain the environmental consequences of permethrin, a chemical used in mosquito repellent, in sub-Saharan Africa. Afterwards my groupmates and I held our own meeting where we drafted a plan for the following days, then we finished off the day with individual research. As I learned more about permethrin and some of its effects I realized how easy it can be for products containing harmful chemicals to contaminate the environment, and that once the chemical is in the environment it can easily be exposed to humans, plants, and animals. Therefore it is important that those types of products are carefully regulated.