Day 3

September 28, 2011

Today was our first real day! We arrived around 1:30 and we each went to our different labs. Since today is Wednesday, I went with Seung Ha to her lab in Maryland Hall. When we arrived, her mentor first gave us an introduction and explained the project to us again. He then drew it out for us so we would have a better understanding. Then, we moved to the lab room. He explained the rules of the lab room. Afterwards, we practiced pipetting, a skill that we would need to have in order for our labs to be accurate. We practiced different techniques for the first two hours. We tried the normal pipetting technique with different amounts of water for the first hour. Then we tried reverse pipetting for the second hour. John-Michael showed us how to pipette in the most accurate way. He told us that it was important that no air bubbles are made while pipetting because it will make the reading inaccurate. Once Seung Ha and I understood all we needed to know about pipetting, John-Michael showed us cells that were in the process of being grown. He pointed out how all the different cells are different sizes and different shapes because of their structure. The cells are kept in a special machine. I forget what the machine is called but it sort of looks like a refrigerator. This machine makes sure that no outside sources interrupt the growth of the cells. Then, we looked at a poster about the Preparation of Ternary Nanoparticles that John-Michael made for class. He explained how a polymer was made of multiple monomers and the importance of plasmid DNA. It was all pretty hard to understand because he is learning graduate material. But from what I did understand, it was interesting. For the rest of the time, he showed us around the building. We went to other labs where he explained the significance of different tools that we might use sometime. Sometime near the end of the day, my mentor showed up for a few minutes before he needed to leave for his next class. He came in and checked to see what we were up to. He then explained my project to me again in a little more detail. Then he had to leave for he wasn’t late for his next class. Since it was only our first day, that was pretty much all that we did!