Napping until September, see you in 309

Me after the Mod 2 report was finished:
Image result for burnt match

Needless to say, when I realized that we still had another large assignment to finish, I was very sad. All I wanted to do was take a nap for several years, but instead I had to **cue horror music** be creative and **shudders** talk in front of people.

Mod 3 did have some redeeming qualities. On the one hand, it's very short. Additionally, a lot of the work was done for us, and it felt kind of fun. Because the research report wasn't a looming obstacle worth 20% of our grade, I was able to just enjoy the science and the process of building batteries out of phage. Overall it was really cool! And I felt like Professor Belcher's enthusiasm and overall happiness/energy was really something that got me through Mod 3.

The research proposal was definitely spooky. I felt like I didn't have sufficient time to let ideas roll around before picking up on one. One second I was handing in the Mod 2 report and the next, I was being told that I needed a fully fleshed out idea for a research proposal. Thank goodness for my amazing lab partner. I was so grateful that we were finally able to collaborate with our lab partners again. Two brains are always better than one! It was also helpful that we got to pick a topic that we were interested in. It definitely made the literature searching more enjoyable. The possibilities were endless!


20.109 has been a great class--very informative, very exciting, and I've definitely learned a lot of extremely valuable skills when it comes to lab work as well as communicating my research findings. I feel a lot more comfortable planning, conducting, and reporting on research than I did before I entered this class on the first day. The course faculty were incredibly patient, and really helped me to develop as a scientist. The class also had some drawbacks, including the fact that I spend WAY more than 15 hours per week working on it. I also felt like there were some times when quality was sacrificed in the name of quantity. Additionally, I understand that working on multiple projects at once is "preparation for the real world," but  because everyone is already taking multiple classes, it's pretty challenging to be face with multiple modules (or multiple projects, ie: research proposal and Mod 3) for a single class at the same time! These are just a couple things that I'm sure you've thought about but might make the class more enjoyable for the next generation of 109ers.

Thanks so much for all the help, constructive criticism, and guidance throughout the semester! You guys are the best!

-Jenna Melanson

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Presentation

The presentation went well. I think it was super helpful to fake present to classmates and instructors. Getting feedback from people who didn't know very much about our topic was really important for overcoming the bias of information. That’s when you know more than your audience and because of this assume a certain level of literacy with your topic that your audience doesn’t necessarily have. We practiced a lot to different people and I think that paid off and turned a presentation that was initially inscrutable and complex to something that was logical and understandable. 
Read more

Mod 3 experience

I was initially worried after reading the introduction of Mod 3. I didn't necessarily understand what was going on at first and I did not want to work with batteries as I thought this was not what I signed up for. However, as time went on and we continued to learn what was going on, this was a really fun module. I genuinely enjoyed working on the lab, seeing the TEM results, and constructing our batteries. To think we can use our skills as biological engineers to make batteries is quite interesting. Also, the fact that the paper is roughly 3 papers makes it so much easier to do. Our presentations were also really interesting and I really like all of the ideas that I've heard from my peers. It really taught me that we're not that far away from writing our own papers in the future and coming up with ideas for research projects. Overall, 20.109 has equipped me with the essentials to be a biological engineer but most importantly, how to communicate with others in our field.
Read more

Don’t judge a module by first sight!

Different from Module 1 and Module 2, Module 3 is less molecular biology focused and not directly related to medicine. At the beginning of Module 3, I thought that I would enjoy this module less as it seemed less relevant to my primary interest in medicine and cancer research. However, I was wrong. I truly enjoyed this module, from TEM to making batteries, from brainstorming research ideas to presenting our research proposal. It was my second time seeing TEM samples, but it was just as fascinating as the first time. The phage nanowires were intertwined with evenly distributed gold nanoparticles, and the gold atomic planes were so regular and amazingly beautiful. On the last day of Module 3, it was so exciting to see batteries being made, and to light up LEDs using batteries with the cathodes we made! The unimaginable beauty in the order, simplicity, and complexity of nature, from atoms to nanoparticles, from proteins to cells to organisms, is what drew me to biology in the...
Read more