Zaibaa Mehmood, Luton Sixth Form College.
During my summer holidays, after my first year at college, I took part in a Nuffield research placement at the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences (EEES) at the Open University.
During this placement, I worked alongside a PhD student Sophie Alexander to analyse marine sediment (or mud in simple terms).
The main aim was to investigate surface ocean productivity in the Southern and Atlantic Ocean during the early Eocene. This was broken down for me into smaller aims as below:
- Create smear slides of mud samples from different sites
- Identify components on slides using a polarising microscope
- Compare analysis of 3 different sites and decide what changes there are and how they were caused
- Use the data gained to improve knowledge of ocean productivity during a warm greenhouse period.