First day in lab

Today in lab I was allowed in a literature review meeting.  In this meeting a student presented a paper on retinal basal membrane extra cellular matrix proteins.  The PI and every one in lab analyzed the paper in order to better to understand the science.  My mentor took me to see the x ray photoelectron spectroscopy machine.  This machine sends a beam of light to a sample.  He would like to send this beam at different angles to get a better picture of what is on the cover slips.

Summer camp over

All the high school students had a great time.  They got to present what they learned for the week.  The students also left with a desire to know more about science.  It was a great experience.

DNA demo

The students were excited today to see their results from the plasmid extraction.  The students ran their gels and got to see how good their lab techniques were.

NSF REU Seminar

Dr. Mikos presented today tissue engineering.  He stated that his work is designed to create tissue that ultimately be used for patient with severe trauma, and to be used after tumor removal.  Creating polymer scaffolding for cell growth is an intricate process. The polymer itself needs to maintain the mechanical properties of the tissue it is replacing.  Dr. Mikos use the example of elasticity and arteries.  If the polymer you are creating does not have this property it will not function as an artery.  He also mentioned that the FDA for the most part does not band material used in engineered products but products themselves.  The process of making the polymer may leave harmful solvents in the product and that is what the FDA monitors.  Dr. Mikos lecture was every interesting and had the REU talking about taking his classes.  

Communication Workshop

Today the students dove into writing their college essays. They were given some homework. They are to complete their drafts so they can do peer review on the last day. Dr. Messmer gave them some advice. That it is better to have more material and then cut down. He also talked about conclusions. He stated that you do not need to restate you thesis and it can be only a sentence.

Ethics Training

For lunch I had ethics training. I was given 2 articles to read for the seminar. The first article was very detailed, and was about graduate students reporting their mentor for falsifying data. The article interviewed the students and you got a sense of conflict. The students were face with doing nothing or facing the consequences of doing the right thing. It is interesting to see that even when you do what is right it can still make matters difficult. Most students had to start over or get out of science all together. Some were glad to have that piece of mind and others were still conflicted. They all knew they did what was right but some still did not understand what they got out of it.


The second article was not as detailed and just was information about retractions. The researcher in a lab falsified data and was forced to print retractions. It was discovered that these falsifications were going on for quite some time, and many retraction were printed. It was determined that the retractions did not alter our understanding immunology.

The seminar also had a presentation for different faculty from Rice. They explained what scientific misconduct was and our responsibility of researchers to do good science. If anything were to happen just tell someone. If something did not work, just report it. If mistakes are made just let people know.

Microscopy Demo

The group went into Dr. Caprette’s lab. Here we looked at microscopic specimens. The students examined pond water and a culture of protist. I learned a new technique to use in class. Yeast can be grown and then treated with Congo red. Once the dye has been incorporated into the yeast it can be heat treated and stored. The yeast can be feed to a live culture of protist. The protist will then digest the yeast, and while looking through a microscope the students can see a color change occur. The yeast changes from red to purple when digested.

Hands-On Demo Robotics

Dr. O’ Malley took us on a tour of her lab. We were allowed to see different aspects of mechanical and electrical engineering. The first project we saw was a targeting machine. What would happen was a subject would sit in front of a computer screen with two joysticks, one joystick for each hand. The subject was able to control the right joy stick. The object of the exercise was to control the joystick to manipulate a dot connected with a sting to a larger dot. The subject controlled the smaller dot and could feel the resistance of the larger dot. The subject had to hit targets with the large dot by swinging it with the smaller dot. Once they tried this they would then use the left joystick. What was interesting about this joystick was it was considered the expert. The left joy stick taught the subject how to perform the task at the maximum efficiency. This project could be used to teach astronauts how to perform maneuvers in a safe environment. The second project that we saw was a motion caption project. The graduate student was trying to determine the effectiveness of accelerometers in game controllers. He was comparing his stop motion acceleration data with the readings in the controller.

Meeting with Mentor

Daniel A. Harrington will be my mentor this summer.  We talked about what is going on in the lab and what my part might be.  In this lab they are studying a protein called perlecan.  It is a protein that borders the cells of the prostate, and is seen to be degraded as prostate cancer metastasizes.  The lab wants to study this protein and the effects that cancer cells may have on it.  In order to do so they need to perform experiments on cells bonded to domains of perlecan.  To do this the perlecan domains need to be covalently bonded to a dish in a monolayer.  This is where I come in.  To do this sounds simple but it is a delicate procedure.  The goal is to make it an easy process that anyone in the lab can use these dishes for experiments.

DNA Demo

Dr. Beason prepared a lab were the students were to isolate plasmid DNA.  The students had a great time using micropipettes and trying very hard to follow the directions to the letter.  

Communication Workshop

The students were allowed into an engineering computer lab were they worked on their college essays.  They had to create a thesis and have 3 piers review it.  The students were honest with each other and constructive.  It was a good time to practice what they had been taught.

Chromatography

Dr. Vollmer introduced the students to chromatography.  This is a method of separating molecules on a solid media with a liquid solvent.  The students made t-shirts and rate of flow percentages.  I got involved by ironing the pattern created by the students with a piece of aluminum foil.  The aluminum allowed the dies to be fixed.  Everyone had a great time.  

Formulating & Testing Hypotheses

After lunch the Mr. Rodriguez and myself lead this lab.  It was so much fun.  We allowed the students to make balloons, and hand them to us.  If they were not up tour specifications they were popped.  The students were so perplexed, but eventually designed methods to create an expectable balloon. 

OEDK Design Demo

The morning at the Kitchen was very interesting.  When in the engineering design lab the students were allowed to create a telephone.  I have never worked on bread boarding before but I try my best to understand.  

How to Prepare a Scientific Poster:

In this session Dr. Kalovidouris help the students understand what is needed in their poster presentation.  Some important tips: leave margins as is, ppt and pdf are the best format. 

FLOW:

Problems             Methods             Results                 Table 1

Goals                                                                         Fig 2

                                                                                 Conclusions

Format:

TITLE 90-120pt 6-8 words (Arial)

HEADINGS 36-48 pt 3 words (San Serif)

TEXT (San Serif)

Green House Tours

Dr. Rudgers allowed us to go into the research green house.  They are studying the effects of a fungal endophytes on different species of grasses.  It was really interesting to lean that it is a strong possibility that the symbiote helps in plant growth and/or insect protection. 

Baylor Brain Lab

The students and I had the privilege of being allowed in the Baylor College of Medicine Gross Anatomy Lab.  We had a brief lecture about brain anatomy and the effects of addiction on the brain. Then the students were allowed a hands on examination of the brain.  They asked graduate students question about anatomy and function of the brain.

Chemistry Magic Show

Chemistry Magic was so fun.  Dr. McHale created explosions with hydrogen/oxygen filled balloons, and deep froze flowers with liquid nitrogen.  The students saw a thermite reaction and loved it.

Communication Workshop

Dr. Messmer went over application essays today. In the first session the students only looked at thesis statements.  They now critiqued essays as a whole.  They read through essays looking at what could possibly be improved and what was good.  Dr. Messmer also created an essay that contained a lot of cleshays.  The students easily picked it out and it was interesting to see them really point out everything they saw as flaws.  I hope they can do the same with their own writing.

Overview of Science & Engineering

Dr. West gave a talk about what is the difference between engineering and science.  Also, she showed the students what type of work she was doing in her lab.  The students heard about gold covered nano particles that incinerate cancer cells, and polymers that reduce swelling after an Angioplasty.  The students had a lot of good questions for Dr. West.

Lunch Talk w/ Dean Forman

The students got to express their fears about being an undergrad.  It was interesting to see that students think about school cost and the feasibility of becoming multiple majors.  The student got a lot of useful information.

Communication Workshop

Dr. Messmer introduced the students to what makes a great thesis statement.  It was presented for the students to be able to write good college application essays, but I also got a lot out of it.  Dr. Messmer used the term vitality to describe good thesis statements. He informed the students to be specific and to know the difference between motivation and industry.  This really applies to creating great resumes and completing job applications.  Employers what to know what makes you a good hire and the same things that make a great college student can also make a good employee.  His lecture showed me that I need to revise my resume.  Also, he introduced the idea of intellectual curiosity.  Being an intellectual is not enough, and as a student you should not be satisfied with just what you know.  I can see this as a problem at where I teach.  Most of the student body are very intelligent, and can the whole school scores in the 90^th percentile on standardized tests, but the will most often settle for “C” and not learn new things.  I think if I introduce this idea into the classroom it might help some of them realize that being smart is not an automatic acceptance letter to a university.

RET Orientation and SAST Welcome Dinner

The first day was a great introduction to life as a student of higher education.  The high school students eat with their mentors, and talked about college life.  The students left with an impression that being a college student is difficult but manageable.  The college students that the high school students talked to came from all walks of life, from out of state and even from out of country.