June 10th, 2016 Today was extremely fun! I learned that there’s a lot more to the process of transferring bacteria onto agar plates than simply just slopping some soil into PBS and then scooping an arbitrary amount up to dump onto the agar gel. It’s quite possible for too much bacteria to grow on a… Read More
June 9th, 2016 I showed up to the lab happy to find out that the peptidoglycan extraction hadn’t happened yet! I was excited that I would be able to see how to go from having a concentrated solution of bacteria cells to only having fragments of their peptidoglycan leftover. Although I was ecstatic for learning… Read More
June 8th, 2016 Today I met up with the other interns at the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex (SEEC) building at Research Park. We filmed our elevator speeches which were a 1 minute long summary of who we were, who we were working with, what our projects over the summer consisted of and the importance… Read More
June 7th, 2016 Today I worked on creating 1/100 LB agar plates for the experiment. It consisted of weighing out solid compounds with a digital scale, washing agar powder using DI water and the magnetic stirrers, autoclaving the LB agar solution to sterilize it, letting it cool on the magnetic stirring plates, adding antifungals using… Read More
June 6th, 2016 Today was a relatively painless and enjoyable day for me, though I confess I did have an awkward new-intern moment! My mentor, Tess, emailed me that I could come in for my first day whenever I wanted and that she’d be in the lab at around 8:30 AM. Naturally, being the night… Read More
So, the first week I was extremely excited but of course nervous. The first couple of days were just filled with surveys, ice breakers, and short informative lectures. My favorite part of the week was the trip to the Mountain Research Station (MRS). We went into the mountains and camped overnight with periodic stops for… Read More
I’ve been trying to think of a less corny pun/movie reference all week…oh well! This last week was a trip for me. Birthdays are usually a time for reflection. Looking back on my life, and being slightly depressed about another lap around the sun, this year I can honestly say that I am genuinely happy… Read More
Week 1 – June 6th, 2016 This has been an incredibly eventful and memorable week for me. I moved from my parent’s home in Castle Rock to the Bear Creek Apartments in Boulder on Sunday and have spent the week getting to know the RECCS staff, scientists, RECCS alumni, and fellow student researchers. I confess that… Read More
The NSF-funded 2016 Research Experience for Community College Students program kicked off on May 31. Ten student researchers from six community colleges across Colorado are participating in introductory week activities before diving into their 9-week long summer research projects next week. The RECCS student researchers are based at a variety of research locations including CU… Read More
