I Feel Sciency

Today was a bit of an unusual day for my class. We began our day in the laboratory to perform PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, using the bacteria sample from our streaking plates. PCR is super interesting. It was something I had learned out back at Pinole Valley, but this time, we actually got to do it, which was super cool. I never imagined I would get to perform PCR. The instructions were easy to follow, but it still took us the whole morning.

Lab! Lab! Lab!

After lab work, we went back to class to have lecture. We reviewed the basics of DNA replication, again something from regular bio. I’m proud of my note-taking skills, because I have been writing much faster than I usually do. Lecture is always interesting, but it doesn’t captivate it the way lab work does. At 11:30 AM, our PCR reaction was taking longer than expected, so we were dismissed for lunch.

The struggle

Lunch was with Kara, Olivia, Lindsay, and Karla. Kara struggled over her assigned readings. She takes economics, and one glance at her papers was enough to make my head spin. I joked with Kara that she should have us pay her everytIME we took pictures of her. $1 for unposed picture, $2 for posed, and a $3 fine for sneak photos. Hey, I'm not studying econ, bu that's a pretty good plan, right? It is going to go into effect July 29th. 

Lindsay is super healthy, and her artfully piled mountain of fruit made me feel bad about my own diet. Here’s to hoping I eat healthy.

Lindsay's lunch

Lunch over, we went back to lab. We have one TA name Rebecca, and she is super nice. She took the lead for explaining the rest of the lab to us, and she is just as good at explaining as Dawn, the actual lab teacher. Rebecca helped me and Elaine a lot in this part of the lab, as we were confused by the protocol. We finished on time, though, and I feel like a proper scientist!

After lunch; waiting for lab to open

After class, Elaine and I returned straight to the dorms. She and I are on the same floor, so I just dropped off my things in my room and grabbed my laptop before I headed for her room. We spent the next one and half hour working on our homework, which was the lab report. Luckily, this one was quite easy, since we only had to answer questions already given to us about the lab and didn’t have to turn in a formal one. Still, it took us a fair amount of time to finish. By the time we were done, it was time for dinner.

Dinner

Dinner was with more people than I had expected. Usually, my dinner buddy is just Karla, but today, because we have to get together to discuss what time to meet Ms. Sciacca at the Chicago Art Institute, I joined Jahnvi, Lindsay, Olivia, and Kara. Raqueeb arrived later, since he came from the library. It was nice eating with them, and we even got to see pictures of Lindsay and Olivia as children. The food was awesome today as well (the tomato soup was hot! and delicious!), so all in all, it was a great dinner.

I had planned to go see Moana tonight, but the activity was cancelled by the RA due to the weather, apparently, so I hung out with the group from dinner a little more before I showered and began some of my readings for my class. I have been participating in class, but I’ve also noticed that there is somewhat of an imbalance between my participation in the lab and in the actual classroom. Therefore, I want to work on improving that, and the first step for me will be to write down my thoughts as I do my reading so it will be easier for me to talk in class when we discuss the articles (I often forget my observations and points I want to talk about). Classroom discussions are fun – I just enjoy lab work more – so I hope to get myself more involved! 

Michelle was mad I haven't put her on my blog