S2:13 Shout Out to Our STEM Mentors!

Poster Presentation-Arizona/Nevada Academy of Science Conference

Shout Out to Our STEM Mentors!
I think we all need to take a minute and thank our program mentors for helping us get to presentation-ready level with our research and creating the opportunity for us to attend symposiums and conferences. Over the past two weeks, I definitely understood the value in networking and communicating with mentors during the preparation stage for the conferences. I feel like the conference in Vegas went pretty well and I was able to take away what I need to work on in presenting to judges in the future. Aside from the conferences, I am working on making a connection with one of the ASU-West professors in hopes of being able to learn from her in lab. I'm very excited for this opportunity and definitely have Dr. Cotter and Dr. Chapman to thank for that!!!

S2:12 It’s GO TIME!

It’s Go Time!

What a week!!! I finished my poster Monday morning just in time to get it sent off to the printer. The rest of the week was spent getting ready for the ASU West Symposium and then the Arizona Nevada Academy of Science Conference. I am so glad that Dr. Cotter recommended going to the earlier poster session to get practice answering questions from the judges. It was definitely intimidating but great practice. I feel like the ASU West Symposium was great practice for the ANAS Conference. Next up is a five hour long drive to Nevada and a long night of squeezing in some homework, but it’s totally worth it!

S2:11 Seven Students, 2 Research Mentors,1 Van, and a Conference

https://aznvas.org/meeting/

Seven Students, 2 Research Mentors,1 Van, and a Conference
It's crunch time in the lab this week due to the upcoming ASU Symposium and the Arizona Nevada Academy of Science Conference. I just wrapped up my experiment and am almost finished analyzing my data. I am so glad that I was able to filter the rest of my samples after having the hiccup last week with the vacuum filter.  My poster is about ready to go, I just need to plug in my data and write the discussion section. I am definitely still nervous about having to talk about my project to total strangers because it usually involves maintaining eye contact and not zoning out in my head. 

S2:10 ....A Vacuum With a Sucking Problem?

....A Vacuum With a Sucking Problem?
I was really looking forward to running the rest of my samples this week but then I had an unexpected problem with the vacuum filtration system. Typically the system filters the water relatively quick (about 500mL under two minutes). For some odd reason, I noticed tons of air bubbles between the Buchner funnel and the porous plate. After two hours of trying to figure out what was wrong and testing a few things, we still haven't figured out what was wrong. What I was left wondering was if it is possible for the porous plate to be clogged. After talking with my current biology professor, he suggested soaking the plate in some type of acid. I am hoping to try this tip on Friday so I can finish filtering the water samples. In the meantime, I am trying to prepare my poster for the upcoming ASU Symposium. I am also in the process of registering for the AZ Nevada Academy of Science Conference. 

Source: https://chem.libretexts.org/Demos%2C_Techniques%2C_and_Experiments/Basic_Lab_Techniques/Vacuum_Filtration

S2:9 Just a Girl Living in a Plastic World

Just a Girl Living in a Plastic World
Going into this research project, I knew that people, including myself, use plastic in their daily lives. However, it wasn't until I started my experiment that I realized just how dependent we are on plastic. Think about it and ask yourself, "How many times today did you use plastic or plastic-related materials?" As for me, when I reflected on this, I realized I come into contact with plastic several times a day. Almost everyday, including today, my microwavable lunch comes in a plastic container. The fork I use to eat lunch is plastic. My water bottle is plastic. That's a lot of plastic!
Aside from pondering about how much plastic society depends on, I also began to start my project poster while I waited for the small glass petri dishes to get delivered by Amazon. Once they arrived, I washed them in distilled water and placed them into the laminar air flow hood to dry. It was a long process but pretty to look at.

S2:8 It's All About Control

It's All About Control
This week was all about brainstorming how to control for the independent variable since. Initially, distilled water seemed to be a good control but when I ran it through the filtration system and analyzed the sample, I saw a significant amount of microfibers and other unknown pieces of material under the dissection scope. As a result, I decided to try and filter a large quantity of distilled water several times in hope that I would see the quantity of microfibers and particles decrease after each filtration. After filtering the distilled water sample three times, I can still see the presence of microfibers and unknown pieces of material. I am going to try and filter the sample a few  more times and see if I can at least filter out all the microfibers.

S2:7 Out of the Lab and Off to D.C.

Out of the Lab and Off to D.C.
This past week was particularly hectic, but I would redo it in a heartbeat. I missed the first part of the internship week, because I had to fly to Washington, D.C. for a few days. I'm part of this political advocacy fellowship program where we are taught to advocate to our legislative members for the continuance of antipoverty programs like SNAP, MEDICAID, USAID, and the Global Fund. During the fellowship year, we fly out twice to Washington, D.C. and speak with Senate and Congressional Representatives. My favorite part of the policy summit was speaking with representatives on the importance of continuing to increase the funding for the Global Fund and USAID Fund, because Tuberculosis is the leading infectious disease killer among people around the world. Supporting programs like the Global Fund and USAID  can help other countries gain access to newer equipment and educational support to help with programs that reduce childbirth-related death rates, lower rates of TB infections, and many other programs. I also really enjoyed seeing how science can intersect with policy. After lobbying some AZ representatives, I flew back to Phoenix and picked up on the Microplastics project. Project highlights from this week included receiving the all glass jars and disseminating them out to fellow interns. I also spent some time brainstorming faster ways to collect water samples from around the Valley of Phoenix. I decided that I am going to ask my biology classmates to bring in samples. I think I will be able to collect water samples from all 13 villages in Phoenix. My goal is about 30 samples. We shall see what happens!