Monday, July 17, 2017
Visit to Laney College
We met up at JBEI at our usually time then we took a trip to Laney College in Oakland to take a look at their microbiology lab. We got a tour of their lab and met a couple of people that work there, including high school students. After our trip to Laney College, we went back to JBEI to have a career panel with four people that work at JBEI with all different jobs. We also worked on our UC and Common App personal statements. The teachers were super helpful with cutting and polishing our personal statements.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Fire Drill, Gram Staining and Microscopy
At the start of our day we flow-charted our procedures for the gram staining we were about to do. We got in the lab, all PPE’d (Personal Protective Equipment) up then all of a sudden we had a fire drill. After walking down a block or two to a nearby park, we walked back to JBEI and began our work. We grabbed our plates from a previous experiment where we used them for Congo Red and DNS Assay. Once we completed our gram staining, we went to lunch. When we came back, we looked at our slides under a light microscope in groups and continued to work on our personal statements and blogs.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
PCR and Gel Electrophoresis
We started off the day with some background on PCR and the history of DNA from Teacher Assistant Ron. Then we proceeded to write down our procedures for the PCR experiment. Once we finished the experiments, we set up our gel electrophoresis and then we got a background lecture from Teacher Frankie about gel electrophoresis. We also ordered food for the week with the help of Esa and James. We concluded the day by finishing our gel electrophoresis experiment.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
PCR re-do and Gel Extraction
We started off our day with some physical and mental activity to get our blood flowing. Most of us didn’t get results from yesterday’s PCR activity so we had to go into the lab to re-do it which is where we spent most of the day. Once we repeated our PCR, we prepared for Gel Extraction and proceeded with our experiment.
Friday, July 21, 2017
PCR Clean-up & more presentations
We began the day with a group activity and left to the lab at 10am. We did a PCR clean up, then we watched another presentation. At the end of the day we had a science ethic debate to end the day. The debate was interesting because the topics that we covered were controversial.